Kung Fu Panda: Curse of the Seer
by Tigreye33
Summary: Second installment of the Tiger's Eye Series and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda: Unseen Eyes. Another of Tigress's secrets is made public, resulting in the arrival of four soothsayers. In the process, Tigress loses the ability to do advanced Kung Fu. It's a race against time to find the antidote, or Tigress might never be able to use Kung Fu for the rest of her life!
1. Introduction

What happened so far...

_Tigress had nightmares about her past and began to get answers: her dead mother's ring was found. After an incident with the Polecats, a large group of very skilled thieves, the Masters soon got acquainted with Vixey, a red fox detective. She gained the trust of the Masters and helped defeat the Polecats in their attempt to take Tigress. Eventually, the Polecats returned and Tigress and Vixey made a run for it. They ended up in Cheng Guang City of the Ju Long Province, where Huang Zu, the tyrant, ruled. Due to Vixey's trick, Tigress made it back to the Jade Palace. Hearing of Vixey's death sentence, the warriors returned to Cheng Guang City, resulting in Tigress's forced marriage and the others' near-death. Then, Tigress met her father, Li, and learned what had happened to her family. The prince, Jian Kang, requested Tigress's help in ridding the world of his father and changing the Ju Long Province for the better. The attempt failed, and Li became injured and poisoned, Huang Zu learning soon after of Tigress actually being the child of two of his slaves. Huang Zu ordered Tigress's death, making the "dead" Masters return and help her fight the guards and Polecats. Tigress fought Huang Zu, but was poisoned. Jian Kang killed his father instead and freed the slaves from their confinement. Tigress was healed from the poison and visits her dying father, receiving his ring just before he died. Vixey joined the Masters and is still quickly learning new Kung Fu techniques..._

"Go now!" Tigress called.

Vixey ran at the obstacle course. Of course the swinging ax frightened her, as did the arrows she'd have to evade for almost three meters. She finally reached the platform.

"Talia Leap!" Tigress shouted.

Vixey did as she was told... and landed lightly on her feet, right where she was supposed to.

"You did it!"

Vixey started jumping up and down in excitement, squealing.

"Well done, V-!" Tigress started, but she stopped when the fox put her in a tight hug.

"... Vixey," she said sternly.

Vixey quickly let go.

Moments later, they began laughing as they returned to the barracks.

"So what do I learn next?" Vixey asked.

"It depends," Tigress told her. "But it might have to wait."

"Oh, yeah," Vixey said. "I forgot about the Jade Festival. Do you think anyone can complete the challenge?"

"Let's hope someone can," Tigress responded. "But I'm sure there are a handful who will win."

"It's just the first who can get the job."

"Exactly."

* * *

**I know it's a little confusing, but all will be explained in the next few chapters.**


	2. Training

_Chapter 2: Training_

The sky was overcast and threatened of rain. The air was humid, but only just. Many warriors choose a time such as this for training. But what kind of training depends on the warrior.

Two warriors sat opposite each other at the barracks kitchen table with a game of Mahjongg between them. Po sat on one side, eagerly anticipating his opponent's next move. Tigress sat on the other end, taking her time to decide. Even though she was losing badly, she showed no sign of anger or frustration. After all, this was only a game... or was it?

Tigress moved a playing piece.

"HA!" Po shouted suddenly, quickly moving another piece. "You should just give up now!"

"Patience, Po," Tigress said calmly, unfazed. "It isn't over yet."

"Of course it isn't!" Po told her. "But you might as well give up now!"

Tigress moved another piece and Po moved another of his.

"Ha! Ha!" Po laughed. "There's only one move left and the game's over!"

Tigress let a smile come across her face.

"I agree."

She started moving playing pieces and Po's face turned grim.

"I win," Tigress told him.

Po's eyes scanned what had just happened. He'd seen someone else use the same game technique - it was completely legal.

"What...? How did you...?" he started. "How did you learn that?! That move's been in my family for generations! It's a secret move!"

"Then your father should have used more caution when he was playing against Shifu a few months ago," Tigress told him, cleaning up. "You never know when someone's paying attention to your every move."

Thunder boomed overhead. Tigress seemed to freeze and listen for the thunder to fall silent.

"I need to go," she told Po. "Better luck next time."

She turned and left the room.

* * *

"A little rain won't hurt anybody," Crane told his friends as they walked into the training hall.

"No," Monkey told him, "but wet wings will! Don't you remember that welt you gave me a few months ago?"

"I told you that was an accident!" Crane answered him.

"And all along, I thought bruises and welts were trophies among Kung Fu warriors," Vixey whispered to Viper.

"I guess we're still just a bunch of softies," Viper whispered back.

Rain started pounding on the roof as the equipment was being brought out.

"So," Vixey started, now sitting on the rafters, watching her friends train, "where is Tigress? Isn't she supposed to be training, too? And what about Po?"

"Tigress likes to train on her own," Mantis told her, catching several arrows and throwing them at Monkey, "and Po doesn't need to train for the festival."

"Shifu will probably bean me for just sitting around," Vixey mumbled, unfortunately too loud for the others not to hear.

A second later, a chunk of rock was aimed to just miss the fox, scaring her enough to shriek and make her slip from her perch. She thought quickly enough to catch herself by holding on to the wooden beam with her legs. Monkey and Mantis almost immediately burst into laughter.

"Who shot that at me?!" she barked.

Monkey and Mantis pointed at each other, the absence of laughter lasting only for that moment. Vixey got down from the rafters as a drenched Po entered the room.

"Does anyone know where Tigress is?" the panda asked.

"Wasn't she playing Mahjongg with you?" Crane asked.

"Tigress was playing Mahjongg?" Vixey wondered aloud.

"She was, but she left just before it started raining," Po answered.

"Oh," Viper said suddenly, "rain."

"What?" Vixey spoke up. "Does she hate rain?"

"No, she loves it," Mantis said. "Uses it to train whenever she can."

"So where is she?" Po asked again. "I need to ask her about something."

"She's probably in the bamboo forest," Monkey said.

"She's _always_ in the bamboo forest while it rains," Mantis piped up.

"That place just creeps me out!" Vixey suddenly blurted out. "Who knows when there could be someone nearby that just wants to strangle you!"

"You're scared of everything!" Monkey teased.

"I am not!" Vixey argued. "I'll show you who's scared of everything! I'll bet you fifty yen that I'll make you scream like a little girl!"

"It's as good as mine!" Monkey told her, shaking hands on it.

"This won't end well," Crane muttered.

"Thanks," Po told Viper.

"No problem," Viper answered.

Po left the building. When he was a distance away, he heard a high-pitched shriek that sounded as if a young girl had been suddenly startled. Wild laughter immediately followed.

"I _told_ you!" came Vixey's shout. "Pay it up!"

* * *

Ice-cold raindrops fell from the sky, landing on bamboo leaves and anyone unfortunate enough to be caught unaware. Far into the forest, Tigress stood with her eyes closed, her movements slow and graceful.

Po approached with caution. He knew that sneaking up on Tigress would be asking for a rather painful injury.

"Tigress?"

Tigress made a single, very sharp movement in Po's direction. Not only did that make him jump, but the water on Tigress's paws flew off and hit him in the face.

"YAAAAH!"

Tigress opened her eyes as Po brushed the water out of his.

"Sorry, Po," she told him with a slight smirk. "I couldn't help it."

"That was a joke?"

"I guess Vixey's rubbing off on me."

"Huh."

Tigress brushed the extra moisture off of her arms.

"You wanted to ask me something?" she asked.

"Yeah," Po started. "Why do you always come out here when it rains?"

Tigress held her paw out to catch some raindrops.

"Often, when it rains up here, the rain is cold and can catch one off-guard," she explained. "It's hard not to shiver in this weather, perfect practice for techniques that require focus and a still hand."

She was silent for a second.

"Didn't you have something else you wanted to ask me?"

Po tried to remember what he had originally wanted to ask her.

"... Oh!" he finally said. "I was just wondering... well, I haven't really learned exactly how to 'honor the dead'. And I was thinking you'd be able to help me, since -"

"Since my dad died half a year ago and my mom and first foster parents died when I was four?" Tigress answered for him. "I actually expected you to know this by now, since you've lived here for almost your entire life."

Po shrugged.

"Then again, you do have a knack for not paying attention," Tigress added. "Find a candle with a scent that reminds you of whoever passed on. I'd think that the candle you'll be looking for will be somewhat related to your birth parents."

"Candles?" Po asked skeptically.

Tigress gave him a stern look.

"Sorry," the panda said quickly.

"We should head back now," Tigress told him, beginning to walk toward the Palace. "No one wants you to catch a cold."

Po scoffed.

"I never catch colds!" he told her. "Besides, you've been out here longer than I have!"

"That may be so," Tigress replied, "but no one is immune to colds. I just hardly get them."

"Hardly?" Po continued. "I never catch colds! You'd catch a thousand more colds before I even sneeze!"

* * *

The rain was beginning to let up as the sun lowered in the sky. Po and Tigress entered the Training Hall to find Shifu and Vixey observing the other four training.

"'Bout time!" Vixey told the two. "We'd have left by now, but you, Tigress, need to be at the festival, too!"

"There is no need to rush, Vixey," Shifu told her, not even turning to face her. "We still have time."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Po suddenly started. "Can we practice that technique where we -!"

"No," Tigress said flatly. "We don't have time."

"But Shifu said we still have time!"

Everyone in the room fell silent, all but Po reacting as if they really didn't want to practice what he was talking about. After a while, Vixey spoke up.

"I guess we can," she said hesitantly. "Besides, if it goes wrong _again_, we'll still be okay because Po doesn't need to fight tonight!"

The others slowly agreed.

"Okay," Tigress said. "Let's get this over with."

The seven warriors took their positions in the center of the Training Hall: Po and Tigress facing the training dummy between them while the other five surrounded them.

"Go!" Shifu shouted.

Immediately, everyone leapt into action. Po and Tigress climbed high into the air with the aid of the others hitting the bottoms of their feet, propelling them farther up. The others demonstrated techniques meant for distracting enemies and cleared away when Po and Tigress were high enough into the air. Po curled up into a ball and Tigress prepared to hit him hard enough to make him slam onto the dummy with great force. Unfortunately, as soon as Tigress hit him, Po lost his grip on his feet and belly-flopped. The dummy threw him back, as it had done in the past.

Tigress landed on her feet, irritated.

"This is why I said no," she told Po, walking by him.

Monkey helped Po stand up, the panda dizzy and disoriented.

"Why did I even rationalize?" Vixey mumbled to herself.

"How many tails do you see?" Viper asked Po, holding the tip of her tail up in front of him.

"One?"

"Don't lie."

"... Two."

"He'll heal on the way down," Mantis said.

"We really should leave, Master," Crane told Shifu.

"We will have more time to practice this later," Shifu told his students. "The Valley is waiting for us."

The eight of them left the Training Hall and started toward the stairs that would lead them to the Jade Festival.


	3. The Jade Festival

_Chapter Three: The Jade Festival_

The sun sank behind the horizon, the tints of light fading from the sky. Stars dotted the dark mass and shone down on the world below.

In the Valley of Peace, lanterns lit the streets. Villagers crowded around the many street merchants that lined the streets and children darted to and fro, waving little lanterns as they ran. There wasn't one soul who was indoors, asleep. After all, who could sleep during such a festive time?

All fell silent as Shifu and his students arrived and stepped onto the raised platform in the village square.

"Welcome, citizens, to the Jade Festival!" Shifu told all. "Tonight, we will find a new quarterstaff master for the Jade Palace!"

He motioned to the large group of quarterstaff masters standing near the platform.

"The first warrior to defeat each of the members of the Furious Five consecutively will take the job."

A feeling of awe flowed through the crowd and was evident on their faces.

"The warriors who are not currently fighting will be free to enjoy the festival. Good luck to all who participate!"

* * *

"ACHOO!"

"Po! Are you okay?"

Po wiped his nose.

"Yeah, Dad," he told the goose. "I'm fine."

He and Mr. Ping happened to walk by the candle vendor, where Tigress was looking at merchandise.

"I thought you said you never catch colds," Tigress said, not bothering to looking up.

"I, uh, stand corrected," Po admitted sheepishly.

"I'm glad you asked me about your problem earlier, Po," Tigress said as the panda walked up to her. "This vendor travels all around China, collecting candles to sell. You might have an easier time getting what you're looking for."

The vendor bowed to Po. He was a corsac fox: just like Vixey, except that his fur was yellow.

"All of these candles are fresh in stock," he told his customers. "Although, I must say, if someone sees you buy one, that candle might soon be sold out, if you know what I mean."

The crowd watching the fight seemed to cringe as they watched Viper defeat her opponent.

"When I was in Cheng Guang," Tigress started, "the incense they used, Bajiao, or Star Anise, made me start remembering things about my parents. So I choose that candle to honor them."

The crowd cheered as Monkey stepped up to fight a new contestant.

"Soul-searching are you?" the vendor asked. "I have five different kinds of candles from around the Gongmen area for you to check!"

"I'm not really soul-searching," Po told him, but checked the scent of the first candle anyway.

Mr. Ping picked up one of the candle holders. It had paint splattered onto it as if someone had merely slashed at the air with a paintbrush, the candle holder in the paint's path.

"My kids like to help me with my sales," the vendor told the goose. "That one's my youngest's creation. She really knows how to swing a paintbrush!"

The crowd gasped as Monkey was pinned by his opponent, deciding the match. Mantis stood to fight him.

"I remember when I gave Po a chance to paint a picture," Mr. Ping said. "After a few seconds, he thought the paint was soup and tried to drink it. He discovered he didn't like it and splashed it all over the wall!"

He and the vendor laughed. Po pretended he didn't hear that and checked the scent of the second candle.

"Waaaah!"

Po and Tigress turned to see Mantis toss his opponent up into the air, pinning him as soon as he hit the ground. They turned back to what they were doing. Po reached for the third candle.

"Nothing yet?" Tigress asked.

"Not really," Po told her.

He smelled the third candle and recoiled. The smell was revolting enough to make him hold it as far away from him as possible, as if he were holding Scorpion in his paws, and he put it back where he found it.

Crane stood up to fight the third contestant.

"Aren't you up next?" Po asked Tigress.

"Yes," the tiger responded. "Isn't it obvious?"

Po shrugged and picked up the fourth candle. He smelled it.

_Still not it,_ he thought, putting it back.

The candles seemed to get closer to what he was looking for, except for, of course, the "hog's scent" as he called it.

The crowd again gasped as another member of the Five was beaten. Tigress was up next. Po turned to watch the fight.

Tigress approached her opponent. The lynx prepared herself and ran at her. Immediately, Tigress spotted a mistake in her opponent's technique and caught the staff as it was swung in her direction. The lynx flinched. The crowd cringed again as the lynx suddenly found herself on the floor, pinned.

Po picked up the last candle as Tigress walked back to the vendor. At first, the scent caught him off-guard. He smelled it again. He was amazed at how familiar the scent was. He looked at the small box it came from:

五加

"Wujia?" the vendor asked. "Another name for that is Ginseng. Since this is your first time buying from me _and_ you're the Dragon Warrior, I'll let you have a discount! How 'bout it?"

"Oh, no thanks," Po told him. "I don't really need a discount."

He paid for the candle.

"Hm..." the vendor started. "Is refusing discounts common among Kung Fu warriors?"

Po got what he was hinting at. Tigress had also turned down discounts.

"I... guess so," he told the vendor.

He saw Tigress pay for the candles she bought and they left the vendor to tend to his other customers.

* * *

Viper got down from the stand after she defeated her opponent. She hated to show how inept certain contestants were at fighting, but at times, she really couldn't help it.

"Master Viper?"

Viper turned to see a yellow snake with black and red markings.

"Daughter of the Great Master Viper?" he continued.

"Umm..." Viper started, "that's me."

"I'm Wuji and I'm a huge fan of yours!"

"Oh. How nice."

"I also heard that you're still single!" Wuji continued.

Viper's eyes widened in horror.

"Oh, no," she whispered to herself.

* * *

Mantis let out an exaggerated gasp.

"She doesn't have any shopping bags!" he told Crane in mock panic. "Something must be wrong!"

Vixey put her paws on her hips and glared as they started laughing.

"Really, Mantis?" she told him. "This again?"

"What?" Mantis started. "There's a time and a place for teasing. That time happens to be right now!"

"At least I'm not afraid of the opposite gender of my species."

"Hey!" Mantis told her. "It's not my fault that I happened to be a Praying Mantis!"

Monkey claimed victory over his opponent.

"O Fearful One, it's your turn on the stand," Vixey teased.

Mantis gave her an annoyed look before going to face the next contestant.

"You don't have any shopping bags?" Monkey asked Vixey.

"Why is it that everyone thinks that when there's a chance to shop, the girls get the most stuff?!" the fox barked.

"We don't think that," Crane told her.

"We just know that you're the one who does more shopping than all of us combined!" Monkey added.

Vixey would have turned red if she weren't already.

"You're all jerks," she told them, beginning to walk away.

"Am I the only one who hears you say that over and over again?" Crane asked.

Vixey turned to face him.

"You're probably the only one who doesn't just ignore the phrase," she told him.

She turned to leave again and something caught her eye. She couldn't stop herself.

"Those are the _cutest_ parasols I've ever seen!"

She caught herself as Monkey and Crane burst into laughter. She ignored them and walked over to the parasol vendor.

"I can't believe that just happened!" Crane struggled to say, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Classic Vixey moment!" Monkey told him.

The crowd gasped as Mantis was defeated by his opponent. Crane stepped up to challenge the contestant.

"You just missed it!" Monkey told Mantis, and explained to him.

* * *

Shifu continued supervising the fights. As the number of contestants continued to decrease in size, he almost wanted to tell Tigress to stop being so hard on those who had defeated the other four, but he knew she couldn't help it.

He watched as Crane was defeated and his opponent began to fight Tigress. As his student pinned her opponent as she had with everyone she faced, Shifu felt a chill. It wasn't from the night air mixing with autumn's cold breeze. It was unpleasant, reminding him of when he last talked to -

Shifu brought himself back to the present. He had a job to do. He'd worry more about _her_ later.

* * *

Viper was glad Tigress had just defeated another contestant. That meant that she could escape "Mr. Creepy Scales" at long last!

"I gotta go!" she hurriedly said, racing off to her post.

For once, she finally found relief in throwing around her opponent and pinning him. She looked up and saw Wuji still there, waiting for her. She looked at him for only a second before fleeing in the opposite direction.

Keeping low to the ground, she slithered through the crowd. Satisfied that she was without his presence, she stopped at two vendors and bought some merchandise.

"Hello again."

The shock of hearing that voice made her flinch.

* * *

Vixey surveyed the vendors she passed by, almost ready to stop shopping for the night.

"This is _less_ than I've ever shopped," she told herself. "The guys should be proud of me! Idiots..."

She was surprised to see a panicked Viper darting through the crowd. She seemed relieved to see her fox friend.

"Can you hold these for me?" Viper asked quickly, handing her the two shopping bags.

"Sure," Vixey responded.

She was about to ask what was happening, but Viper disappeared into the crowd, another snake chasing after her.

"Hey, miss!" he shouted. "I know this great rice restaurant nearby! We should check it out sometime!"

Vixey giggled a little.

"Looks like someone's got a date to the Qixi Festival," she told herself.

She looked into one of the bags and gasped.

"There's an orange riceball vendor?!" she almost shouted.

She looked around and went in the direction Viper came from.

* * *

Crane watched as Monkey defeated his opponent and Mantis lost to his. The bird approached his opponent. After somewhat of a tough fight, he emerged victorious. After he left the stand, he checked the list of competitors.

"Wei Zhu," he started, "Min Tan, Mei- Mei Ling?!"

"Present!" came a voice from behind him.

Crane turned to see his friend from the Lee Da Academy.

"Hi, Mei Ling!" he greeted her. "Long time, no see!"

"I just wanted to check how you were doing!" Mei Ling replied. "And when I heard about this contest, I just couldn't resist!"

"Well, good luck!" Crane advised. "No one's managed to beat Tigress yet!"

"Thanks! I'm sure I'll need it!"

They both cringed as they watched Tigress flip her opponent, who fell hard on the wooden platform.

"I'm very sure I'll need it," Mei Ling said again.

* * *

The next contestant defeated each of the Five except for Tigress. Then, it was Mei Ling's turn. The mountain cat seemed to glide through her battles with Viper and Monkey. Mantis was a little tough, but was still beaten. Crane knew not to go easy on her and fought hard, but his efforts were futile. Things were looking up - until Tigress stood to fight.

Mei Ling feinted an attack - something none of the past contestants did to start out - and attacked from the opposite side, but Tigress saw through it. She was unfazed by the feint and guarded perfectly against the attack. The two cats fought fiercely, drawing even the shoppers' attentions.

Mei Ling thought she was seeing things - was Tigress really tiring out? She kept attacking until she realized her fatal mistake: Tigress wasn't tiring out. She was waiting for just the right attack.

Tigress jumped backward onto her paws, grabbing Mei Ling around the neck with her legs, and flipped. Mei Ling crashed to the ground. She looked up at Tigress, who was standing over her, staff in hand. She lost.

Tigress gave Mei Ling back her staff. Mei Ling got down from the platform and headed over to Crane.

"Sorry," she told him. "Maybe I'll get the next job that comes up."


	4. The Challenger

_Chapter Four: The Challenger_

The night dragged on. Many of the villagers left for their homes to put their children to bed. Even without those villagers, the crowd watching the fights was still large.

After defeating her opponent once again, Tigress left the platform. On the way, she noticed one of the contestants watching the fights very carefully.

He was a South China Tiger, like herself. He wore a plain, dark brown vest and black pants. He also wore dark brown wrist and ankle wraps and plain sandals. He had two wide strips of black leather across his chest in an "X", which seemed responsible for keeping his staff on his back.

He stood, arms folded, and kept his focus on Viper, who was fighting another contestant. Tigress realized that, if this tiger had been doing this all this time, he could have easily found anyone's weakness by now. He would be tough to beat.

"Po," she told the nearby panda, "any idea who he is?"

Po was close enough to check the list of contestants.

"That must be Jin," he told Tigress, "from Miao Zhen Village. It's near Cheng Guang and it's the only place quarterstaff masters get those things that clip onto the staffs so they don't have to hold them day and night."

"He's been paying attention to every fight," Tigress responded. "We might have our quarterstaff master."

Tigress did have one doubt, though. Having another tiger of the opposite gender in the Jade Palace might drive her up the wall more than Vixey would. But that was quickly solved when another tiger who seemed to also be from Miao Zhen approached Jin. By how she acted, she must definitely be his girlfriend. Still, Jin's focus remained on the match, even while he was talking with his chatty girlfriend. He only looked at her after the fight was over, and she didn't seem to mind.

Viper triumphantly left the stand and Monkey approached his next opponent. Both were unaware of who Tigress saw.

* * *

Vixey was happily munching on an orange rice ball when something caught her attention. Or, rather, some_one_. She was a fox, dressed in almost the same manner as the shocked Kung Fu Master watching her.

Vixey swallowed what was in her mouth.

"Warn Tigress, don't warn Tigress," she reasoned with herself. "Warn Tigress, don't warn Tigress. Ohhhh! I don't have time!"

She approached the other fox.

"Hi, Mom!" she said weakly.

The other fox quickly turned around.

"Vixey!" she excitedly said. "Surprise! I'm here!"

She scooped up her daughter in a tight hug.

"You do know it's polite to write ahead, don't you?" Vixey struggled to say.

Her mom let her go.

"Of course, I do!" she responded. "But I thought it would be a nice surprise for me to come anyway!"

Vixey let out a whimper too quiet for her mom to hear.

"This'll be a long night..."

* * *

No longer than an hour later, the time to test Tigress's expectations came at last. Jin rose to the stand. His opponent was Viper. As soon as the match started, Viper feinted an attack. Only this attack threw Jin off-guard. Viper struck at him, but Jin dodged quickly. Then he struck. Viper tried to take his staff from him, a common tactic used by all of the Five. However, as soon as Viper had grabbed the weapon, Jin started spinning her, wrapping her around the staff. He quickly slammed her on the ground, unable to move.

The other Masters were shocked. That was the fastest that Viper had been defeated.

Jin continued in this manner, defeating Monkey, Mantis, and then Crane by using their tactics against them. Now it was Tigress's turn to fight or to fall.

Everyone watched in great anticipation. As soon as the fight started, both tigers rushed at each other. Tigress started out mirroring Jin's moves, trying to analyze his attack style. Then she went all offensive. She continued changing tactics every few seconds and it was a while before she cycled. It still didn't give her much of an advantage.

Jin threw his staff, spinning it so it would be very difficult to catch and cause a lot of damage. Tigress knew the way around this attack. She ducked and caught its middle. She tried to use it against Jin, but he hit her fist, throwing the staff out of her hand. She didn't have enough time to stop it from hitting her face. In an instant, she found herself thrown onto the ground by the staff and its holder. The staff was held across her chest. She lost.

All was silent as the crowd tried to understand what they just saw. One pig even fainted. Then everyone cheered. Jin held out a hand to help Tigress up. As soon as she was standing, the other members of the Five stood by her and each bowed to the new member of their team.

"Congratulations, Jin!" Shifu announced. "You have brought great honor to Miao Zhen Village! We welcome you to the Jade Palace!"

Jin humbly bowed to Shifu.

"Thank you, Master," he told him before standing once again.

* * *

The festival didn't last much longer afterward. Villagers went home in flocks, since the excitement was over.

The Masters, including two tigers who came with Jin, climbed the staircase to the Jade Palace. The first was Jin's girlfriend while the other was an elderly female.

"So, Jin," Viper started, "what all should we know about you?"

"To start off," Jin told the others, "I'll probably get frequent visits from my mom, Jiju, and my girlfriend, Xinli."

He had motioned to both of his companions as he introduced them.

"Probably more Jiju than me," Xinli piped up. "Since Jin has a new teaching job here now, the rest of us quarterstaff teachers get his students."

"I still think you'd have gotten this job if you signed up instead," Jin told her. "I know for a fact that you're better at fighting than me!"

Xinli rolled her eyes.

"Come on, babe!" she told him. "You were talking about this competition ever since it was announced!"

"Children, behave," Jiju teased.

She turned to Shifu.

"Our visits won't bother anyone," she asked, "will they?"

"No," Shifu answered. "Po's father visits often and every now and then Viper's family will drop in."

"It gets hard to focus with Tegan and Aimu darting about during practice," Monkey mentioned. "You'd think their four older sisters would be able to stop them."

Viper gave him an angry glare.

"They can't help it," she hissed. "They're kids. And they'll grow out of it."

"Speaking of family..." came a voice at the top of the stairs.

Everyone looked up at Vixey.

"You guys should be _so_ glad!" she said exhaustedly. "We just avoided a visit from my mom!"

Everyone looked at her, confused.

"She and I are exactly alike, except that Dad toned me _way_ down," Vixey corrected herself.

Everyone except for the new arrivals, Shifu, and Viper (both of whom were considerate enough to not do so) sighed with relief.

"And how did we avoid this?" Mantis asked.

"She decided that it was too late to visit," Vixey told them, "and she has to leave in the morning."

The others joined her at the top of the stairs and started toward the student barracks.

"You guys won't believe the day I've had..." Viper began.

"Tigress, when I beat you in the tournament," Jin asked quietly, "I didn't embarrass you by beating you that quickly, did I?"

"No," Tigress responded. "Humility is a big thing here. How quickly did you find our weaknesses anyway?"

"For the others, it was around an hour into the fights," Jin answered. "You took longer because of how quickly your opponents fell."

Tigress couldn't help but smirk.

"Good," she said. "As long as no one can find any weaknesses before I take them out, I figure I'll be just fine."

"Well, we need to leave," Jiju told everyone. "We wouldn't want to keep anyone up all night, do we?"

"See ya, babe," Xinli told her boyfriend before kissing him.

Jin waved to his companions before following his new colleagues to the barracks.


	5. A Secret Made Public

_Chapter Five: A Secret Made Public_

"It's my first day on the job, and everyone gets the day off?"

"Pretty much," Mantis answered from the lowest branch of the Peach Tree.

Jin seemed skeptical.

"I guess it's only fair," he said. "No one needs to over-train, especially after a night like last night."

He paused.

"This'd be the perfect time to get used to the Jade Palace," he said before heading toward the barracks.

Monkey suddenly appeared, upside-down with his tail wrapped around another tree branch.

"He doesn't know when to rest, does he?" he asked Mantis.

Mantis merely shrugged.

* * *

"Last chance, Po," Tigress called through the panda's door.

Instantly, she heard things moving around inside the room, as if Po had misplaced something and was desperately trying to find it. Then she heard him exclaim as if he'd found it, and had immediately hit his head on something else. Seconds later, he came out the door.

"Found it," he told Tigress, holding up the candle he'd bought last night.

"If you'd at least clean your room up once each month, you'd find things faster," Tigress responded flatly. "Come on. Let's go."

* * *

The two warriors left the Jade Palace and walked about an hour to a cave in a less-populated area of the Valley of Peace. They passed a small, elderly bunny as they entered, and they came to a large bamboo candle stand. A majority of the spaces on the stand were inhabited by recently-used candles.

Tigress trimmed several of the smoldering candles before placing her own.

"I had made a habit of coming here ever since I was a little girl," she told Po. "I don't know what I was thinking at that age, but I had somehow invented a Kung Fu technique that helps me honor the dead."

"A new technique?" Po asked, putting his candle on the stand as well. "Can I see it?"

Tigress took hold of the wick of her candle and snapped her fingers, lighting a flame.

"Stand back," she told Po.

Po stood back and paid close attention. Knowing Tigress, this technique might go by too quickly to register.

Tigress took a ready stance. She made two sudden movements, which Po didn't quite catch, and swept over the lit candle with her right paw, spreading the flame to all of the candles on its immediate left. She mirrored her prior movements and swept the flame with her left paw, spreading the flame to the candles on the right. She spun around once and thrust her palms at the row of lit candles, spreading the flames to the rest of the candles. She slowly stood up straight, signaling the end of the technique.

Silence only lasted a second or two.

"That... was... AWESOME!" Po babbled. "How'd you get _all_ the candles lit? Can you teach me? That would be awesome!"

He realized that she was still standing there, unresponsive.

"Tigress?"

He walked around her to look at her face. She was staring blankly at the wall in front of her and her eyes were unfocused. Po waved his paw in front of her.

"Tigress?"

* * *

"_Where am I?"_

_Tigress looked around. She knew she wasn't anywhere near the Valley of Peace. This was a place she'd never been._

_There were plants everywhere. Few buildings were in sight, and each building was made primarily of the trees nearby._

_Tigress walked to the nearest building. She saw a large panda inside, wearing a green robe and tending to a small, blue orchid._

"_Po?"_

_The panda didn't respond. Then again, this panda didn't seem to look exactly like her friend. Still, he was very similar._

_The panda looked up, seemingly at Tigress._

"_Ah," he said. "It's about time."_

_Confused, Tigress turned to see another panda standing nearby._

"_The rice crop seems to be doing better this year," he told his elder._

"_Good," the elder said. "Good."_

"_Elder," the other panda continued, "is it true? Is Shen really gone?"_

_The elder got up and started to walk slowly to his friend._

"_I doubt even the scout knows," he said. "If it is true, then-"_

_He suddenly stopped. He looked in Tigress's direction._

"_... Is there someone there?"_

_He reached out, Tigress stepping back and avoiding contact._

"_Elder? Is there something wrong?" the other panda asked._

_The elder looked in Tigress's direction as if she were invisible, but still there._

"_No," he finally said. "Nothing's wrong."_

_He and his friend walked away. Tigress walked over to look at the larger area and was left in awe. There were so many pandas!_

_Tigress tried to understand what was happening. But soon, all she could see was darkness._

* * *

Tigress opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground as if she had passed out. It took her a moment to remember why she was there.

"Tigress, are you okay?" came a whimper from behind her.

Tigress rose slowly to her feet.

"I'm fine," she told him.

"Bu-bu-but you just passed out!" Po jittered.

"I'm _fine_," she repeated firmly. "I need to talk to Shifu."

Po, still shocked, shut his mouth. He knew that was the end of discussion. He silently followed his troubled friend out of the cave.

* * *

"Master!"

Shifu had just been returning from the Peach Tree when he heard Tigress's voice and turned.

"Master," Tigress told him, "it happened again."

"Again?" Po asked, panting from his flight up the stairs.

Neither Tigress nor Shifu paid any attention to him.

Shifu was shocked. This could be just the reason _she_ may have been waiting for.

"Come," he told Tigress. "We'll discuss this in my study."

As exhausted as Po was, he couldn't keep up with either. By the time he got to the study, the door was closed.

"Po!"

Po turned. The other Masters ran to him.

"What's going on?" Jin asked. "I saw you both come up the stairs as if there were an attack on the Valley!"

"I don't know," Po told his friends. "Tigress was just all normal and then she passed out and now she's all freaked out and-"

"Oh, this again?" Monkey asked.

Vixey recoiled.

"Again?" she asked. "What do you mean again? She's been all freaked out like this before?!"

"Only three times before," Mantis replied. "Only she and Shifu seem to know what's going on."

"The first one was a few years ago," Crane said. "After we had completely failed one of Shifu's training sessions, Tigress said that she'd had a dream the previous night, foretelling of it."

"The other two were both after she went to honor the dead," Viper told everyone, "each instance months apart."

"But why's she always so freaked out each time?" Po asked.

"How should we know?" Mantis told him.

Barely a moment later, the door opened. Tigress and Shifu left the study, hardly surprised at all that the others were just outside.

"So, what's going on?" Vixey immediately asked Tigress.

"It's about time that you all should know," Tigress answered, "I am a Seer."

Surprise crossed each of the faces of her friends.

"A what?" Po asked.

"A Seer," Vixey answered him. "Basically, the beginning of a Soothsayer."

"Why would you want to become a Soothsayer?" Monkey asked.

"I never said I wanted to," Tigress told him. "I don't know how it happened, but it did."

"Why were you guys keeping it a secret from us?" Viper asked.

"Because, if that secret got out," Tigress responded, "it would bring representatives from Soothsaying schools to the Jade Palace to try to recruit me."

"To _try_," Monkey quietly laughed.

"If you've been a Seer all this time," Jin started, "why haven't there been any visits from any Soothsayers? We'd have heard about them by now."

"It's because my abilities have evolved," Tigress said. "Before, it was just small visions of an event of the future. This last incident, it was at the present and I saw an entirely different area..."

She looked at Po.

"... with a panda colony."

Po felt his heart start racing.

"A panda colony?!" he asked.

"Yes," Tigress continued. "One of them mentioned Shen, and one looked almost exactly like you, as if he were your biological father."

Po looked like he was about to faint.

"Do you know where this place is?" he asked weakly.

"That's my problem," Tigress told him. "It was as if I'd just appeared there. I didn't see myself traveling to or from that place."

"Our biggest problem is the unwanted guests," Shifu said. "I'd prefer to live without the thought of a certain Soothsayer dropping by."

"Who?" Po asked. "The old goat from Gongmen City?"

"No," Shifu answered. "There's someone else much worse."

His students paid close attention, listening for his answer.

"My little sister."


	6. Pleasant Memories

**Sorry for the long wait. I had a terrible case of Writer's Block.**

* * *

_Chapter Six: "Pleasant" Memories_

The students were at a loss of words for a few seconds. Tigress merely remained silent.

"Your sister?!" Vixey cried. "Your sister's a Soothsayer?! I can understand why you'd normally be afraid of your little sister, after all, I'd be afraid if I had one, but-"

"Stop talking, Vixey," Tigress told her.

"Why didn't you tell us about her?" Crane asked.

"Because Tian and I didn't exactly have a favorable relationship as children," Shifu answered. "There was only one time I was glad to have her around when I was a child: when she was born. I was five and glad to have all of the attention taken off me."

"It's common for kids to have rivalries when they're little," Viper said. "Why do you both hate each other so much?"

Shifu hesitated. There was obviously something unpleasant coming.

"You have to understand that young children can often be foolish and stupid," he explained. "I had just started learning Kung Fu around the time she started walking, and... well, she kept annoying me by following me, knocking things over... I hadn't come up with the concept of just ignoring her or tattling on her... or I did and it didn't work..."

He hesitated again.

"I practiced Kung Fu on her."

His students were mortified. Tigress only looked as if she had heard the story before.

"You practiced on her?!" Monkey asked.

"Let's not dwell on the past," Shifu said quickly. "I was obviously punished for that. Tian was a smart girl, even at that age. She learned from that first time that she could just get me into trouble as often as she wanted."

"And she got away with it?" Mantis asked.

"Oh, most times, I deserved it," Shifu explained. "But things escalated after our mother died. I was seven at the time, and my family had to leave because my father lost his job and he couldn't pay for our house anymore. Eventually, when we came to the Jade Palace, it was just me and Tian. Years later, when we were given the decision between family and Kung Fu, I chose Kung Fu and Tian chose family. She left the Jade Palace and I never saw her again until decades later, days after Tigress came to the Jade Palace."

"I still don't think she knows you adopted me," Tigress told Shifu.

"But you remember how often we argued," Shifu said. "Almost all of the time. That was when I learned she had become a soothsayer. She teaches at the Shide Lao School of Soothsaying."

Zeng suddenly appeared and approached Tigress.

"They said this needed to get to you as soon as possible," he told her as he handed her a scroll that looked like a letter.

Tigress immediately recognized it.

"Speak of the devil," she breathed as she opened it.

She read through it quickly.

"They're coming," she told the others, handing Shifu the letter. "If you ask me, they're rushing to fight a battle they've already lost."

"Wang, Zhanshi, Ting, and Tian," Shifu read aloud. "I never quite understood why Wang always made me a little tense."

"When will they be here?" Jin asked.

"Tomorrow morning," Tigress answered grudgingly. "But I have a plan that will make them leave before the morning's over."

* * *

The next morning, Tigress hardly seemed worried. She acted as if the previous day had never happened.

"She's totally going to beat them senseless!" Vixey told the others excitedly.

"I hope they're prepared to walk away empty-handed!" Monkey said.

"I doubt they're prepared for anything Tigress'll throw at them!" Mantis replied.

"Don't you have something else to do?" Tigress suddenly told them.

The three Masters immediately left. Vixey passed Po as the panda left the barracks.

"If those soothsayers know what's good for them, they'll leave as soon as they see Tigress," Vixey told him.

Po walked up to Tigress.

"You ready for 'em?" he asked her.

"Do you have to ask?" Tigress replied.

"Not really. Have you met these guys before?"

"Only Tian. I've heard about the others through the 'pleasant' conversations Shifu and Tian have.

"Wang is a yellow-throated marten. He tends to be pushy and dogmatic. He has a constant thirst for power and will try to overwhelm anyone who crosses him.

"Zhanshi is a common spoonbill. His power lies in defense. He can quite easily sense anything coming his way and deflect it. He's most well known for walking calmly into an enemy fortress and overthrowing it without injury or losing his focus. I've also heard that he likes to look down on those younger than him.

"Ting is a peahen. Her strengths are offense and distraction. Most of the enemies she's faced have fallen only because she scared them and they were too frightened to rise again. She can't land strong blows, but easily makes up for it with her speed.

"You already know a lot about Tian. She's smart and thinks things out before she does anything. She's a skilled healer, which is the main reason why no one's defeated the quartet yet. She has one weakness I plan to use to my advantage: she hates fighting against family and will do almost anything to avoid it."

Po was impressed.

"How're you going to use that to your advantage?" he asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," Tigress told him.

"Is soon enough right about now?"

Po and Tigress turned to see Jin. An instant later, they heard a gong sound and looked toward the staircase. Shifu was standing there, gazing toward the bottom of the stairs with subtle hate.

"They're here," Tigress growled.


	7. The Four Soothsayers

_Chapter Seven: The Four Soothsayers_

Four white-robed figures made their way up the long staircase, toward Master Shifu and the eight students behind him.

All of the soothsayers showed signs of aging, whether it was a graying face or wrinkled feathers. Despite the loss of color in his face, Wang still showed dark gray, if not black, fur on most of his head and the back of his neck and yellow on the bottom of his jaw and on his throat. Zhanshi's feathers seemed aged and slightly unruly. Ting's once-black face was speckled with white, giving her a peppery look. Tian's face also seemed to be growing whiter, but she still had more color than Shifu.

As soon as the soothsayers reached the top of the stairs, tension filled the air, especially between the red panda siblings. Wang wasted no time.

"Master Shifu," he said coolly. "What a pleasure it is to be here."

"Hmph," Shifu responded. "You have no business here, Wang."

"Don't I?" Wang asked. "If we didn't have any business here, why would we be in such a place? In fact, we're not even here to talk to you."

He and the other soothsayers approached Tigress.

"Stand aside, child," Zhanshi snapped at Crane.

"Child?!" Crane fumed as he was pushed aside.

"Tigress," Wang started, "we invite you to join us in the noble craft of soothsaying."

"If you're so good at your craft," Tigress told him without hesitating, "you should already know my answer. It isn't very wise to make such a futile attempt."

"Perhaps we can offer you something worth your time," Wang told her. "We offer great honor and time with your family."

Tigress hardly blinked.

"Try to bribe me with something I don't already have," she said bluntly.

The soothsayers weren't expecting that answer.

"You don't have family around here!" Ting spat.

"Actually, yes I do," Tigress answered her calmly.

She turned to Tian.

"I don't think you know that I was adopted into your family."

Tian immediately turned to Shifu.

"You adopted another child?!" she almost shrieked. "After Tai Lung?!"

"She turned out all right," Shifu told her tauntingly, "didn't she?"

Muffled laughter erupted from Shifu's other students.

"You're a fool," Tian muttered under her breath.

"Is he?"

The soothsayers turned back to Tigress.

"He teaches us to be prepared to rescue anyone at any given time," she told them. "All you do is sit around, waiting to be asked for help. The real question is: Why should I join you?"

"We can help you access visions from the future," Zhanshi told her.

"I find it better to remain in the present," Tigress said plainly.

"Is it truly better?" Wang asked.

Tigress smirked.

"A simple contest could help you find your answer," she said. "If each of you can defeat me, one by one, I will leave with you."

Everyone froze.

"And we can use our skills?" Ting asked.

"Yes," Tigress responded. "But there's more."

The entire group entered the Training Hall.

"We will fight on this platform," Tigress told them, and pulled a thick rope.

A platform rose off the ground, held up by other thick ropes, from the center of the Hall.

"I'm sorry, but I can't," Tian said. "I can't fight you, Tigress."

"No matter," Wang said. "Zhanshi, Ting, and I will fight."

"Tigress, are you nuts?" Po told her.

"I know what I'm doing," Tigress responded.

She turned to the soothsayers.

"I should let you know that the chance that I'll leave will go down with each of your defeats," Tigress told them.

The Masters relaxed a little. They knew that if there was even a 1% chance that Tigress wouldn't leave, she'd stay. But that didn't mean she was completely safe.

"Let us begin," Wang said.

Tigress and Ting took their places on the platform. It felt extremely unsteady.

"Fight!" Shifu called.

Tigress immediately shot forward, striking incessantly and leaving barely any room for Ting's reactions. Ting blocked each blow perfectly, relying heavily on her senses. However, she didn't see the edge quickly approaching. She squawked as she felt the ground disappear from under her.

The Masters cheered as the soothsayers cringed. Ting got up and glared at Tigress, who merely smiled and walked back to her place.

Still, the soothsayers wouldn't give up. It was Zhanshi's turn to fight, but Tigress did the exact same thing. But Zhanshi stopped at the edge and failing to block an attack at his head. He fell off the platform, landing as Ting did.

Shifu's other students cheered again. Their cheering made Wang grow angrier and more determined. He jumped onto the platform and readied himself. Tigress's expression before the fight made him think she wasn't even considering this a serious fight. It was as if she'd been playing with a cat toy all this time.

The fight began and Tigress repeated her previous actions. Wang blocked every blow and stopped at the edge. He blocked the attack at his head, only to find, to his horror, that she feinted the blow. She kicked his legs out from under him, sending him off the platform.

Wang was fuming when Zhanshi and Ting tried to help him up. He shoved them aside.

"Failures!" he barked. "If you both had tried harder, we would have beaten her! Then we would have-!"

"Still lost."

The soothsayers turned to Tigress.

"You would have won if all of you had beaten me," she said.

"Had they won, I would also have won!" Wang growled.

"All _four_ of you."

The soothsayers looked like their hearts had stopped.

"No way!" Vixey shrieked with glee from behind Tigress. "I can't believe you! Hee hee hee! Oh, my-!"

She almost collapsed in laughter.

"That's a cheat!" Ting snapped.

"No," Tigress told her, "Tian dropped out after I said that if all of you beat me, I would leave. Do you really think I'd gamble like that?"

By now, Vixey was gasping for air between laughs.

"You are dismissed, Vixey," Shifu told her.

Unable to stop laughing, Vixey nodded to let him know she understood and left. Her laughter, however, was still present, no matter how far away she was.

"I have a duty to Kung Fu that I wouldn't give up for the world," Tigress told the soothsayers kindly. "I prefer to stay here, where life is challenging enough."

"You really were raised by my brother," Tian said bitterly.

"I'm considering that a comment," Tigress replied. "Now, if you may, please leave us so we can get back to our normal duties."

The soothsayers turned to leave. An air of disappointment and fury hung over them.

"Don't expect us to give up so easily!" Wang growled, angry enough to almost start turning red.

"But you can expect the same answer from me," Tigress told him.

The Masters took satisfaction in watching the soothsayers descend the stairs.

"Back to work," Shifu said at last.

* * *

A few miles down the road, the soothsayers took residence at an inn. The innkeeper poured tea into Ting's cup until the peahen waved for him to stop.

"Is that all?" the old bunny asked.

"Yes," Ting said simply.

As the innkeeper left, Wang examined his students. Ting sipped her tea while Zhanshi feebly stirred his. Tian stood at a far window, gazing out into the afternoon sky.

"There is another way to get Tigress," Wang said quietly, not loud enough for Tian to hear.

Zhanshi and Ting looked at him.

"How?" Ting asked, desperate for an answer.

Wang drew something from his pocket and showed it to them.

"That would work," Zhanshi said.

"I know it will," Wang growled.


	8. Eye of the Storm

_Chapter Eight: Eye of the Storm_

"Ow..." Po said wearily as he and his friends entered the barracks for lunch. "I don't think I can do very many more of those drills."

"Quit whining," Monkey told him. "At least you didn't have a huge boulder land on and almost flatten you... Oh, wait! That boulder was you!"

Most of them laughed.

"Hey!" Po retorted. "I've been losing weight!"

"Oh, sure!" Vixey replied. "You lose weight as often as I beat Tigress! Then again, that's not really true. You can gain weight and lose just as much weight, seeming like you've never gained or lost any."

"Typical Vixey," Mantis said. "Always proving herself wrong."

Vixey gave him a look.

"Always?" she asked, growling.

"Changing the subject," Viper started. "Has there been any word on the soothsayers since yesterday?"

"No," Tigress told her. "It's been like they've just disappeared. It hasn't been the first time."

"Strange," Crane said. "It sounds almost like you're worried for them."

"Are you?" Jin asked.

"Not really," Viper answered. "I'm more worried about their reaction to yesterday's visit. Especially with Vixey's laughing."

Vixey started giggling.

"Here we go again," Po said.

Vixey managed to stop laughing for long enough to talk.

"I'm gonna leave now," she said, fighting to keep from laughing, "before I -!"

She nearly collapsed in laughter and left the barracks.

"Viper, I wouldn't worry," Tigress told her friend as they entered the kitchen. "They're probably pestering someone else if they're desperate enough to try to recruit me."

"Guys!" Vixey cried, charging in. "I just heard! There's a huge group of bandits heading for the southern edge of the Valley!"

"Just before lunch?" Po complained.

"Come on!" Tigress told everyone. "Let's go!"

Everyone charged out of the barracks... but Po returned and grabbed a handful of dumplings.

"Po!"

Po ran to rejoin the others.

* * *

What would have taken hours to travel for a villager took only minutes for the Masters. They charged toward their destination, ready for anything.

Anything but their job being completed by someone else.

From a distance, they saw two figures fighting off bandits of many different species as if they were nothing. As the Masters got closer, the last of the bandits began to run. The two figures, however, made Tigress somewhat angry.

Tian and Ting turned to face the Masters. They hardly seemed surprised to see them.

"You're late," Ting told them. "Had you come sooner, you may have been able to throw a punch or two."

"Why are you here?" Tigress growled. "We thought you'd left already. And where are the other two?"

"Zhanshi left to help Wang," Tian said. "They should be getting back soon."

"We appreciate the help," Crane started, "but we'd prefer it if we did our job rather than someone else beat us to it."

"Oh, our sincerest apologies," Ting said. "We should all be on our way to our homes now. Am I not correct?"

Tigress gave a slight growl before turning to leave.

"Come on," she told her friends. "Let's go."

There was a sudden whistle in the air and Tigress cried out, holding the back of her neck. She felt something small fall behind her.

_Clink-clink!_

Vixey picked the small object up. It was a jade dart, the back of it in the shape of a dragon's head.

Tian saw the dart and realized what had happened. She was about to say something when Ting suddenly took her and flew off.

"No!" Tian cried, gaining the Masters' attention.

They watched Ting fly into the distance and were immediately struck with fear. The bandits hadn't run off. They were standing on a far away cliff, about to shoot a volley of arrows at them!

"Hurry!" Tigress shouted. "The Feng Kong Barrier!"

They all got into position as a cloud of arrows advanced on them. When they were seconds from impact, the Masters moved swiftly, but something unexpected had happened. As Tigress was about to complete the technique, she froze and tensed up involuntarily. Very soon after, she slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Panic filled the hearts of those around her. However, that didn't keep them from doing their task. They restarted the Feng Kong Barrier and knocked the arrows away with the jets of air they sent at them, when the opposing force was a fraction of an inch from impaling the Masters.

Po knelt to try to wake Tigress, but nothing worked.

"I'm getting us out of here!" Vixey cried.

Everyone got near Po and Tigress as Vixey did her disappearing act, leaving nothing but a cloud of white smoke.

Up on the cliff with the bandits, Wang, Zhanshi, and Ting stood with pride in themselves. Tian, however, looked and felt as if she'd been conned. She was speechless with guilt.

Wang turned to the other soothsayers.

"Now, we return."

* * *

"Master!"

The Masters ran toward the already worried Master Shifu, who was standing in front of the Hall of Warriors. He was shocked to see Tigress unconscious in Po's arms.

"What happened?!" he demanded.

"We don't know!" Vixey told him. "We were doing the Feng Kong Barrier when she just froze up and passed out!"

Shifu tried to make sense of all of this, but to no avail.

"Bring her in here," he said, beckoning to the Hall of Warriors.

Everyone rushed into the building, asking Shifu frantic questions.

"Stop!" Shifu said, silencing them. "Did anything hit her before she fainted?"

"Yes, Master," Vixey said quietly, pulling the dart out of her pocket. "It didn't seem to do anything to her. At least, not at the time."

Shifu carefully picked the dart up, examining it.

"I may have been seeing things," Vixey continued, "but I thought I saw it stop glowing."

Shifu looked as if he'd seen a ghost. He turned to Po.

"Lay her down," he told him.

Po did as he was told.

"Where was she hit?" Shifu asked his students solemnly.

"The back of her neck," Jin responded.

Shifu knelt by Tigress and turned her over. What they saw shocked them. There was a glowing symbol on Tigress's neck:

停

Viper was the only one who dared to speak.

"Master, what does this mean?"

"It means," Shifu told her, "that things turned drastically for the worse."

* * *

**Anyone who has seen Forbidden Kingdom will have caught something I adopted from that movie.**


	9. A Beginner's Knowledge

_Chapter Nine: A Beginner's Knowledge_

The fog seemed to be clearing up. When it did, all Tigress saw was the ceiling of the Hall of Warriors, illuminated only by candlelight. She wearily sat up and looked around. The doors were slightly open, revealing the night sky.

"We were waiting for you to wake."

Tigress turned to see Shifu, who was standing by some of the candles and had his back to her.

"Master?" Tigress started, standing up. "What happened? How long was I out?"

Shifu waited a second before turning around to answer her. He had the look that he was very tired, but not because of the lateness of the hour.

"You have been cursed," he said plainly, showing her the dart. "You were out for eighteen hours."

Tigress looked at him in disbelief.

"Cursed?" she spat. "What do you mean? Was that why I couldn't complete the Feng Kong Barrier?"

"That is what I believe," Shifu told her, turning back to the candles. "I fear you may not like the extent of the curse."

Tigress hesitated to ask.

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

"This curse is meant to keep one from using Kung Fu," Shifu answered. "The only Kung Fu techniques you can use without activating the curse are those within a beginner's knowledge."

Tigress was almost consumed with panic.

"Is there any cure?" she asked frantically.

Shifu exhaled.

"Not that I know of," he told her, defeated.

Tigress was in shock. He might as well have said she couldn't use any Kung Fu at all.

"Do... do the others know?" she asked hoarsely.

"Yes," Shifu replied.

Tigress felt as if she'd fallen into a hole and couldn't climb out. She remained silent for a few seconds before speaking again.

"It was the soothsayers," she said. "They left just after I was hit. I think they were behind the attack on the edge of the Valley."

Shifu turned to face her again.

"It would make sense," he told her. "Perhaps they did this so you had no other choice but to pursue soothsaying."

"They overlooked one very important detail," Tigress said almost immediately. "I can't use my Seeing ability without using Kung Fu."

Shifu's eyes widened.

"They've sprung a trap for themselves," he said, feeling hope flood back.

"They'll have no choice but to cure me," Tigress growled.

She winced as something very bright caught the corner of her eye. She turned to see what it was. The sun was peeking up over the horizon.

"Knowing the soothsayers," Shifu said, walking over to Tigress, "they would be coming very soon. Whatever you do, do not use your instincts. Even a technique you believe is basic could activate the curse again and they could quite easily take you. Focus on keeping away from them."

Tigress felt herself sink back into that hole.

"I'm just supposed to hide?" she asked. "What good will that do?"

"I dislike this just as much as you do, Tigress," Shifu told her. "Aside from me, you are the only one who knows every inch of the Jade Palace. To a visitor, one can get very easily lost. Use that to your advantage."

He and Tigress left the Hall of Warriors. They started toward the barracks when something behind them froze them in their tracks.

"Have you had enough time to reconsider?"

* * *

**I know this was a short chapter and that it may seem a little confusing, but better explanations of what's going on will come in later chapters, so stay tuned!**


	10. Duty Calls

_Chapter Ten: Duty Calls_

Shifu and Tigress turned to see the four soothsayers standing only a few feet away from them. Wang, Zhanshi, and Ting looked more than ready to claim their prize. Tian, however, refused to make eye contact with anyone.

The rest of the Masters ran from the barracks and placed themselves between Tigress and the soothsayers.

"So this is how you recruit students!" Shifu snapped, his anger very evident in his voice. "You leave them no choice to become soothsayers!"

"Master Shifu," Wang said very coolly, "we all know the fight was a cheat."

"I only did that because you wouldn't leave," Tigress told him, "even after I'd said no."

"She is right, Wang," Tian said quietly, but fell silent when Wang glared at her.

Shifu gritted his teeth. Watching his sister be treated in this manner made him furious, even if they'd had an intense rivalry since childhood.

"Tigress, go," he said.

Without hesitating, Tigress ran for the rest of the Jade Palace.

"You're just making this harder than it has to be," Wang warned.

"No," Shifu answered, "you already have made it harder. And if you take her, you'll understand just what I mean."

"We'll see."

In one instant, the Masters attacked. They were all met with an invisible barrier that knocked them back and only stalled them for a moment. In that same moment, they were hit by a combined soothsayer attack, which gave them the feeling that they were being shocked. But they only brushed it off.

Zhanshi and Ting ran at the Masters, striking as often as they saw fit. Shifu dove at Wang and attempted a nerve attack, but the soothsayer struck him down. As soon as he hit the ground, however, Shifu kicked Wang's jaw, knocking him a few steps back.

As Po, Viper, Mantis, and Vixey were battling Ting, Zhanshi stood calmly before Monkey, Crane, and Jin.

"Why don't you children go play with your toys and let us do our jobs?" Zhanshi taunted.

Crane grew furious.

"Where have you been the past few decades?" he spat. "Do we look like kids to you?"

"Perhaps," Zhanshi plainly told him.

He then blocked Jin's sneak attack from behind and redirected Monkey's flying kick at Crane. Instead of being repulsed, Monkey grabbed Zhanshi's wing with his tail and tried to throw him, but the old bird stood rooted to his spot. Crane leapt into the air and dove at Zhanshi, spinning to make himself go faster and inflict more damage. Zhanshi merely caught Crane's beak and tossed him and Monkey at Jin. The three Masters tumbled and were soon standing, ready to make another attack.

Viper struck at Ting, but the peahen evaded her again. Mantis tried a nerve attack, but was swept away. Vixey was about to attack, but Ting screeched in her face, scaring her enough to cower for a moment. As Po fought the peahen, he remembered his fights with Shen and the fear from those fights returned.

_Afraid much?_

Po suddenly felt cold as he heard Ting's voice inside his head.

_I can sense all the fear that scum put in your soul. Fool, you don't know fear!_

Ting hardly moved and the four Masters were knocked back as if a very firm wall had been shoved at them. They recovered and rushed her, hoping for the best.

Shifu fought Wang almost frantically, but the marten evaded each blow. Eventually, Wang took him by the wrists and tossed him onto several of the Masters. Shifu quickly got up, but stopped short. Wang had disappeared.

"He went after Tigress!" Shifu told his students. "We need to find her before he does!"

* * *

Everything seemed too quiet. Tigress sat in directly in the middle of the floor of the Training Hall, meditating to calm her nerves. She had used the time she was given to erect traps to protect herself from Wang. One false move, and fighting the rest of the Masters would be the least of his worries.

A door creaked open behind her. She opened her eyes and her heartbeat quickened. She stood up and turned around.

Wang stood at the edge of the danger zone. Just his gaze made Tigress grow more fearful. But she calmed herself. Even Shifu would have a lot of trouble getting through this course.

"Things would be much easier had you just agreed to join us," Wang said calmly.

"I'm determined to stay here," Tigress snapped. "Save yourself the trouble and leave me alone!"

"And pass up the opportunity?" Wang asked. "You will become a much better soothsayer than a Kung Fu master. I guarantee it!"

He stepped forward. A swinging ax crossed his path, but the soothsayer kept walking forward, showing no fear or even concentration as he continued on. He just kept his eyes on Tigress.

Fear struck Tigress as it had never done before. She hurried backward to the next safe spot. Wang kept walking forward, not even getting a cut in his robe. He dodged trap after trap without flinching or taking his eyes off Tigress. Tigress fled to each of the safe spots until she was out of reach of the traps. She saw Wang continue forward at the same pace. Struck with terror, Tigress ran from the Training Hall.

Eventually finding herself at the barracks, Tigress ran in and shut the doors behind her. Leaning on them for support, Tigress tried to calm herself down.

_Knock-knock_.

Tigress cried out and ran for the other end of the barracks. The doors she had just left creaked open and Wang continued walking toward her.

Tigress was about to turn the corner, but an invisible barrier kept her from doing so. She turned to see Wang still approaching.

"Why keep running, Tigress?" he asked. "Why don't you fight?"

"You know I can't fight!" Tigress told him in desperation. "You cursed me!"

"So what if I did," Wang said. "That shouldn't keep you from pursuing... _other_ professions."

"In cursing me, you cursed yourself!" Tigress spat. "I can't use my Seeing ability without Kung Fu!"

"Why do you tell such petty lies?" Wang told her. "It won't help you get where you want to go."

"It isn't a lie," Tigress responded. "You failed, Wang."

Wang was too close. Before Tigress could realize what she was about to do, she attempted a nerve attack.

"NO!" she shrieked as she froze, soon losing consciousness.

A dastardly smile crossed Wang's face.

"Who has failed now, Tigress?" he said.

He reached for Tigress to pick her up and carry her away, but as soon as he touched her arm, he felt as if a fire began to scorch his hand and arm, prompting him to immediately withdraw his hand.

"What sorcery is this?!" he cried.

He suddenly felt himself get picked up and thrown by an invisible force, landing awkwardly a few feet away. He looked down the other end of the hall and found a red panda standing there. And she wasn't Shifu.

Tian rushed to Tigress's side and stood guard over her.

"What are you doing, Tian?" Wang growled.

"I'm doing my duty," Tian firmly replied. "What you're doing is wrong. Every student deserves a choice. If Tigress desires to stay here, she stays here. You can just get another student. Perhaps even ten students!"

"You are out of place!" Wang barked.

"No, you are out of place!" Tian responded.

The rest of the Masters and soothsayers arrived, everyone shocked at Tian's actions.

"Tian, what are you -!" Ting started, taking a step forward with Zhanshi.

Tian quickly pulled two glowing jade darts out of her pocket, holding them in Ting and Zhanshi's sight. Instead of continuing forward, the two soothsayers backed up quickly.

Wang took a defiant step forward.

"How dare you defy me!" he threatened.

"Why would you attack your best healer?" Tian asked simply. "I know every weakness the three of you have."

Ting and Zhanshi took another few steps back.

"You can't break the curse," Wang told her. "You know that, don't you?"

"I can," Tian replied, "given time."

The Masters lit up with hope.

"You won't have enough time," Wang growled.

"I'll find time," Tian told him, showing no fear. "I'll have much more time now that I quit."

Ting and Zhanshi looked like they were about to have heart attacks. Wang grew angrier.

"You don't know what you're doing!" Wang almost shrieked.

"I know very well what I'm doing," Tian told him, standing tall. "I'm standing up for my family. If you have any sense, you would leave before you cause any more damage... to yourself."

Wang stood still for several long moments before stepping back.

"Come," he told his students without ceasing to glare at Tian, "we leave."

The soothsayers turned to leave, and quick was their flight. As soon as they were gone, Tian knelt next to Tigress and laid a glowing palm on the back of her neck, right over the glowing symbol.

"Are you curing her?" Viper asked.

"It isn't that easy," Tian answered. "I'm just reducing the time it takes for her to wake up. I believe that will be within the hour."

She stood up and faced Shifu.

"Shifu," she started, "I apologize for the trouble I've caused you. Wang had kept me in the dark about this entire thing to keep me from interfering. But I am still at fault for what happened here."

"You can prove yourself by curing her," Shifu told her, the anger not completely gone from his voice.

"I understand."

* * *

The world began to come to life again, at least in Tigress's sight. She didn't take much time to wake up completely. The sight of the ceiling in her room startled her. She expected to be in a strange environment by now. Someone had stopped Wang?

"Tigress?"

Tigress sat up on her bed upon hearing Shifu's voice. But she almost fell over when she saw Tian.

"Master, what's going on?!" she asked quickly.

"Tian decided to leave Wang's side," Shifu told her. "There is a matter we must discuss with you."

"And what would that be?" Tigress asked hesitantly.

"The curse Wang gave you," Tian began, "as Shifu had already told you, is designed to keep you from using advanced Kung Fu. It will make you pass out for normally ten to twenty hours, but I was able to reduce it to roughly thirty minutes. There is only one known cure."

Tigress paid close attention.

"The Moonlit Draught," Tian told her. "I'm not sure how much you know about it, but it can cure any known curse. It has four ingredients, one for each of the earthly elements:

"The Dragon Lily, symbolizing fire, is most often found after a volcanic eruption or a massive fire. When one ingests any part of it, it will burn until it reaches the stomach, ridding it of any foreign material within the day.

"Crystal Ivy, symbolizing earth, is found on ceilings of caves, where sap drips from the roots and crystallizes. When in powdered form and added to tea, it produces a powerful healing effect.

"The Weeping Orchid, symbolizing water, is created when the 'tears of many' saturate one spot of ground. Eating the flower will cause hallucinations of seeing a passed loved one while eating the leaves cure it.

"The Moon Blossom, symbolizing air, is the hardest one to find. Its creation is unknown, and every part of it is useless except for the petals at full moon. The petals will cure every known ailment, from a simple bruise to near-death."

"The full moon?" Tigress started. "But that's in three days!"

"Which is why we need to hurry to find all of the ingredients," Tian continued. "There is no way to preserve Moon Blossom petals after the full moon."

"We also have another problem," Shifu said. "Wang will be back in the morning."

"And he will have had time to prepare against my abilities," Tian added.

"So what's the plan?" Tigress asked.

"We evade Wang," Shifu said. "And I know where we should go."

* * *

**If anyone is wondering what the symbol on Tigress's neck meant, put the symbol in Google Translate or some other means of translation.**

**You know Wang is a lot of trouble if he makes Tigress act like a frightened kitten.**


	11. Disappearance

_Chapter Eleven: Disappearance_

Vixey poked her head out of her room. The sun hadn't come up yet, but that didn't stop her. She walked over to Viper's room and quietly knocked. The door immediately opened.

"You can't sleep either?" Viper asked.

"I'd be surprised if I could!" Vixey whispered. "How will we keep Tigress away from Wang?"

"You heard Shifu," Viper whispered back. "He said he had a plan."

"You guys can stop whispering," came Po's voice from right behind Vixey.

Vixey swiftly turned around, seeing everyone but Tigress standing in the hall.

"Won't we wake Tigress?" Jin asked quietly.

"No," Monkey said. "Tigress sleeps like a rock."

"And if she doesn't tonight," Mantis continued, "we'll know soon enough."

"Uh, guys?" Crane started.

Everyone looked at what he was looking at: Tigress's door. It was slightly ajar.

"Is she in there?" Po asked.

Vixey opened the door wider and she became panicked.

"Does she like to go for a stroll at night?" she asked. "Because she's not there!"

The others rushed over so fast that Vixey stumbled into the room. The room was neat and organized and the covers were smooth. Tigress hadn't even tried to sleep.

"Guys, spread out and search!" Viper commanded.

"I'll get the Hall of Warriors!" Po shouted.

"I'll check the arena!" Crane exclaimed.

"I'll go with you!" Monkey told him.

"I'll check the Training Hall!" Jin called.

Everyone but Vixey dashed away to search, but the fox stood still, looking at something on Tigress's bed. It was a small box. She stepped forward and picked it up. She opened it carefully and looked inside. Along with several other items, there was a folded up piece of paper. She unfolded it and read it.

"Okay," she said after she finished, "I can do that."

* * *

The searching Masters gathered in the arena, more frantic than they had been before they began.

"No one found her?!" Po asked.

"Shifu and Tian are gone, too!" Viper cried.

"Guys!" Vixey shouted, running to meet them. "Guys, there's a plan in place!"

"What do you mean?" Crane asked.

"Tigress, Shifu, and Tian aren't here," Vixey told them. "But the soothsayers will be back, and we have to do our part to distract them. I've already begun my part, so here's what we have to do now..."

The sky began to turn pink as Vixey explained everything.

* * *

As the sun rose over the horizon, Po stood nervously in the arena. Just waiting for the moment made him almost start quivering. He jumped as the doors slammed open.

"All part of the plan," he whispered to himself. "All part of the plan..."

The three soothsayers marched toward him and stopped a foot short of the panda.

"We've come to collect Tigress," Wang told him. "Where is she?"

"Come again?" Po asked.

He suddenly found himself flat on his back and Wang standing on his belly, glaring into his eyes.

"Where is Tigress?" Wang demanded.

Po looked to the left before whimpering, "I don't know."

The soothsayers ran toward whatever Po had looked at. As soon as they had moved a few feet, they saw a tiger dive out of sight.

"Follow her!" Wang cried.

The three followed the tiger up the last staircase and into the ironwood forest. When they had run a distance, they came to a clearing. Po, Jin, and Monkey sat there, sipping tea.

"Morning," Jin said before taking a sip.

Wang turned away in his fury and he and his students ran back to the Jade Palace. As soon as they had left the scene, Jin and Monkey got up and ran to continue their work while Po panted heavily from his fast run.

When the soothsayers left the forest, Ting couldn't help but ask.

"Wang," she started, "wouldn't we be able to sense where Tigress is?"

"Tian cast a spell on the Jade Palace last night," Wang explained quickly, looking about for his target. "I could not sense anything here since last night and Tigress's presence seems to be scattered everywhere. I will not let this keep us from her!"

"All of our abilities have been disabled by her spell," Zhanshi said. "We must find her the hard way."

"Hard way?" Crane asked from above. "You call this hard? I think someone's living life a little too easy."

The soothsayers looked up and saw Crane on the roof of the barracks. He didn't seem worried at all.

"Perhaps a little persuasion will convince you to help us?" Zhanshi threatened.

Crane shrugged.

"Why would you ask me?" he asked. "After all, children don't know anything."

With that, he flew away.

"I told you that would happen eventually," Ting told Zhanshi as they watched with malice.

"Has anyone ever told you that you've out-stayed your welcome?" came Mantis's voice from behind.

The soothsayers turned, a bit annoyed, to see Mantis and Viper.

"Can't you be a little more polite?" Viper asked Mantis.

"Like 'get out of our home and stop picking on Tigress'?" Mantis joked. "How would you say it?"

"I'll just say that they won't find Tigress if they keep looking around here," Viper said simply. "Usually, when Tigress doesn't want to be found, she won't be found."

"Hurry, Tigress!" Vixey's voice was heard to say. "This way!"

The soothsayers immediately turned to the barracks and went inside. They heard something like a cabinet door closing. When they got within view, they saw Vixey bracing a closet door closed.

Vixey waited for them to get closer before speaking.

"She isn't in here," she told them.

"Out of my way!" Wang snapped, throwing her to the side.

He opened the closet and didn't find Tigress, but a poorly made Tigress-sized doll made of flour and vegetable sacks that was sitting slumped against the back of the closet. Angrily, Wang turned to Vixey.

"Hey, I did not know that mannequin was following me," the fox told him.

Wang took her by the throat.

"You will tell me where she is!" the marten growled.

"How should I know?" Vixey choked. "She just told me to not bother her in the Hall of Warriors! Oops!"

She covered her mouth.

"Vixey!" came several disappointed cries.

The soothsayers raced to the Hall of Warriors and ran inside. They stopped a ways in, when they saw a small cauldron with a deep red liquid inside.

"Oh, no," Ting breathed.

Wang and Zhanshi ran for the door, but it slammed shut when they were inches away. Wang stopped immediately while Zhanshi stopped just in time. Two feathers on his wing grazed the door, singeing them.

Ting walked around the cauldron, thinking of a solution.

"Hurry up with that spell!" Wang snapped.

"You know how Tian likes to add variety to her spells," Ting told him. "One thing can break the spell while another can make it worse."

She took a vial of a clear liquid out of her pocket and poured it in.

"Well?" Zhanshi asked.

"Green," Ting answered. "If you touch that door, you will be poisoned."

She tried another vial. It turned as clear as water.

"Done."

Wang pushed the doors open and ran out with Zhanshi and Ting. Everything was quiet.

"Tian's original spell has faded, too," Ting said.

"We're the only ones here!" Zhanshi proclaimed.

"And Tigress was never here!" Wang growled. "We've been tricked!"

* * *

Tian opened her eyes and smirked.

"Your students have found the trap," she said, "and set it."

Shifu and Tigress turned.

"What?" Shifu asked.

They were in the middle of a bamboo forest - miles away from the Jade Palace.

"I left a chore for Vixey," Tian explained. "If she did it correctly, she would have led my former colleagues to the Hall of Warriors and shut them in. The spell I had her set up would keep them inside and burn them if they touched any of the boundaries of the Hall. Ting would then try to use one of two potions to stop the spell. One would change the spell to either a deep sleep or a poison that would only make them miserable for a few days. Using both potions would counter the spell, so I expect they'll be free by now."

They continued walking through the forest.

"At least the others bought us a little extra time," Tigress said.

"And time is of the essence," Shifu said.

"Shifu," Tian started, "where are we going?"

"You'll see," Shifu responded simply.

"Are we going straight there?" Tigress asked.

"No," Shifu answered. "There is someone here we need to talk to."

"Out here?" Tian asked. "In the middle of a bamboo forest? Who would be all the way out here?"

"I have an idea of who it might be," Tigress said.

No more than a few minutes later, they came to a stop. In front of them was a small group of pig bandits, struggling against vines of varying thickness. Tigress smiled upon seeing that she was right. Tian, however, had no room left on her face for any other expression than surprise.

"Hey!" cried one of the bandits, who was hanging upside-down. "You! You right there! Please get me down! I'm begging you!"

"Please help me!" shrieked another. "I get motion sick!"

Shifu, Tigress, and Tian just walked by, making their way to the center of the scene. Sitting there, cross-legged and eating berries, was a leopard Tigress knew so well...

"Dianli!"

Dianli turned as if she already knew they were here. She got up, brushed herself off, and bowed to Shifu.

"Dianli will be joining us," Shifu told Tigress and Tian. "Since we're trying to find plants, she would be the best one to lead us."

Tian stepped forward to address Dianli.

"I don't know if you're familiar with the Moonlit Draught," she started.

Dianli immediately smiled and went to climb one of the stalks of bamboo.

"Where is she going?" Tian asked.

"I find it best not to ask," Tigress responded.

They suddenly found vines grabbing each of them around the middle and lifting them high into the air. Sooner than they knew, their small group was standing on the western edge of the forest. Dianli beckoned at them to follow.

"Are you sure she knows where to go?" Tian asked.

"Yes," Shifu answered. "We needed to go west anyway."

"Dianli always knows what's going on," Tigress added. "If it weren't for her, you'd have heard of our deaths six months ago. The sooner we get going, the sooner I'll get Kung Fu back!"


	12. A Game of Tag

_Chapter Twelve: A Game of Tag_

Vixey kept low to the ground, relying heavily on her senses.

"Yeah," she said, "they were definitely here."

"Does this scene remind you of anything?" Mantis asked.

In the middle of the bamboo forest, in the early afternoon, they saw a jailer boar from a nearby town, cutting vines so he could put the pig bandits in his prison cart.

"Excuse me?" Vixey asked, running over to him. "Have you seen a tiger and two red pandas around here?"

"Why are you asking?" Po asked her. "I thought you had their tracks!"

"They just seem to disappear!" Vixey told him.

"I didn't see anyone other than these guys," the boar snorted, continuing his task.

"I saw 'em," one quivering bandit whimpered from inside the cart. "It was a few minutes after we were attacked by all these vines! Then that stupid leopard came by and taunted us!"

"That 'stupid leopard' was most likely the one that sent the vines after you," Crane told him.

The bandit's eyes widened.

"Do you know which way they went?" Viper asked.

The bandit nodded. He timidly pointed toward the sky and sank behind the door, out of sight.

"Up?" Vixey asked. "Well, that would make sense."

She went over to where the tracks disappear.

"But how are we supposed to find them," she started, "if they just..."

She stopped, sniffing the air. She pointed to the west.

"Stir fry," she said before dashing away.

"Stir fry?" Jin asked as he and the others followed Vixey.

"Tigress," Po told him. "But I didn't think she smelled like stir fry. We had that a week ago!"

At the very edge of the bamboo forest, Vixey made an abrupt stop, causing the others to almost crash into each other. They saw why she stopped: the tracks had appeared again.

"For your information, it was a very faint scent," the fox told them. "They're heading west."

"Well, come on!" Po said. "Let's go!"

They hadn't gone very far when Vixey turned to look behind them.

"Incoming!" she shrieked.

The others barely had time to look at what was coming after them when the air around them exploded into an airborne powder. Coughing and disoriented, they caught sight of Zhanshi pulling out of a dive with Wang on his back and Ting not far behind.

It took several moments of walking like a drunk and falling over before anyone could figure out how to get out of this mess. Vixey crawled out of the cloud and to the other Masters, who were still trying to recover from the sudden attack.

"I... hate... those... idiots," she said before rolling over.

* * *

That was only the beginning. A few miles down the trail, the Masters tried to inch along the narrow bank of a fast moving river. One false move, and they'd have to start their climb upstream all over again. All was going well until a certain peahen appeared suddenly and let out a shrill cry, making the Masters jump and slip into the ravine.

* * *

The Masters ran as fast as they could through a rocky pass when once again the soothsayers were seen.

"They're back!" Mantis shouted.

Vixey grew frantic and threw a dart in the soothsayers' direction. It missed Zhanshi by an inch, but hit Wang in the shoulder, knocking him off the old bird.

"Oh!" Vixey yipped, surprised.

"Let's go!" Viper cried as the other two soothsayers stopped to recover their leader. "Hurry! Hurry!"

* * *

The Masters continued as they ran through a field of dying grass. Vixey heard something off with the whistling of the wind and turned just in time.

"DUCK!" she shrieked.

The others did as they were told in time for Zhanshi to just barely miss clawing them with his talons or knocking them over with his wings as he dove. Mantis nearly had a heart attack when one claw slightly grazed his antennae.

* * *

"Climb! Hurry!" Monkey shouted.

He'd seen the soothsayers approaching while they were all climbing a tall mountain.

"There's a cave just up there!" Crane shouted as he flew up.

The Masters barely made it to the cave when Zhanshi and Ting were inches away from attacking. However, inches and seconds were all the Masters needed to perform the Feng Kong Barrier once again, slamming the soothsayers with as much force as if they had actually missed the cave and hit the mountain wall.

* * *

Viper just got tired of having to deal with the soothsayers and decided to scare them as much as she could. When the soothsayers once again swooped down on her and her friends, she ducked first before biting Ting's leg. This caused the peahen to shriek and veer off to the right, crashing soon after. When Zhanshi flew over to her, the Masters got up and ran for it.

"Master!" Ting quaked. "Master, what should I do?"

"Stop fussing and take flight," Wang growled.

"But Master!" Ting cried. "I'm dying!"

"Use your senses!" Wang barked. "You don't have to be a soothsayer to realize that that snake's bite won't kill you!"

Ting fell silent, but continued to shake.

"Get up," Wang told her. "Any delay will cost us dearly."

Ting hesitated. She felt almost... betrayed. Was this why Tian left?

* * *

It was late afternoon when Dianli led her group to a large hill in a willow forest. She moved some drooping leaves aside to reveal a small cave. Tigress looked inside.

"Is this where the crystal ivy is?" she asked.

"It must be," Tian said.

They walked inside. Tigress was looking around to see where this crystal ivy was. How would she know what it was if she didn't know what it looked like?

Several things were sparkling, but nothing looked like any sort of plant. Tigress directed her gaze back to where she was going and stopped suddenly. Inches in front of her face was a slim crystalline vine. It had small leaves that were about the size of her thumb. The vine generated from the ceiling and reached halfway to the ground.

"There it is," Shifu almost whispered.

Tian took a small pouch from her pocket. She gently took three leaves and a part of the vine the length of the tip of her longest finger to her wrist and put them in the pouch.

"That should be enough," she said, putting the pouch back in her pocket. "It needs to be ground to a powder anyway, so we won't have to be careful with it."

"Where to next?" Tigress asked.

"Dianli will lead us," Shifu answered.

Dianli was already standing at the mouth of the cave. She led them out of the forest, toward their next destination.

* * *

Ting sat gazing into the fire, still shaking. The cold of night wasn't quite helping either. She kept thinking about the earlier events, from the moment they first entered the Jade Palace until the present.

Nearby, Wang prepared a spell. He put a few items in a small wooden bowl and threw a powder at it. The result was a lightly glowing cloud. He and Zhanshi scrutinized it to the best of their abilities.

"Do you see anything, Master?" Zhanshi asked. "I see nothing."

"The spell is cloudy," Wang growled. "Ting, what do you see?"

Ting looked up with tired eyes. At first, she couldn't see anything. Then, a figure emerged. A large dragon, seemingly cut out of rock. She recognized it. It was a landmark she'd passed only months ago.

"I..." she started. "I can't. Fatigue is keeping me from seeing anything."

Wang growled before ending the spell.

"We'll try again tomorrow."


	13. Midnight Hunt

_Chapter Thirteen: Midnight Hunt_

_Everything was dark. She couldn't see her hands even if they were less than an inch from her face. A rumbling came from beneath her. The ground erupted and she was caught in someone's gigantic hand - Wang had her!_

Tigress woke up and fought the urge to scream. She was lying on the ground, looking up at the moon. The large sphere was directly overhead.

Midnight.

Tigress sat up and looked over at her companions. Shifu and Tian slept on opposite sides of the smoldering fire. Everyone seemed to be able to sleep but her.

Tigress got up and walked to the nearby stream to wash her face. As she knelt to scoop up water, she couldn't help but think of the next few hours, worrying if the other soothsayers were getting closer, or if they could sleep, too. When she dried her face as much as she could, she looked back up at the moon. It was almost full.

She turned to walk back to camp, but gasped when she saw Dianli sitting next to her.

"You're awake, too?" Tigress asked.

Dianli nodded and stood up. She ran toward a path that didn't seem to have been traveled often and stopped. She motioned for Tigress to follow.

Tigress got up and walked over to her.

"Shouldn't we tell Shifu and Tian where we're going?" she asked.

Dianli didn't seem to answer and continued on the path. Tigress turned to see the red pandas still sleeping. She hesitated before following Dianli.

After a few minutes of wandering through a seemingly cramped forest, Tigress couldn't help but ask.

"Where are we going?" she whispered.

Dianli merely glanced back at her and continued leading. Tigress wasn't very amused.

Eventually, they came to a very large fallen tree. Under it were two boulders holding it up over a swamped out area. Dianli started wading in the muddy water and Tigress followed.

"Just what are we trying to find here?" Tigress asked.

Dianli stopped and looked at her. She then pointed to something across the water: a large red fruit.

"That?" Tigress spat. "Couldn't you have just gotten it yourself?"

Dianli looked at her and pointed at the fruit again.

"Next time," Tigress growled, "get it yourself."

She waded over to reach for the fruit, but couldn't even touch it. She looked back at Dianli, irritation covering her embarrassment. Dianli once again pointed at the fruit. Tigress growled and turned back to get the fruit. She got a few inches closer and reached again.

The fruit suddenly rose into the air as if someone were using it as bait. Tigress slipped and felt something grab her ankle. In an instant, she found herself hanging upside-down and coughing as mud slipped off her face. Another instant later, four dark, hulking figures rose out of the mud and pointed spears at the cats.

"Dianli!" Tigress shouted. "Do something!"

Dianli did something all right. She calmly surrendered.

"What are you doing?!" Tigress yelled.

Dianli looked at her as if expecting something.

"... Fine," Tigress said grudgingly. "We surrender."

* * *

Not too long afterward, the four figures were taking their prisoners up a canyon and to an unknown destination.

"What do we do now?" Tigress tried to rant quietly. "You got us captured, and Shifu and Tian have no idea where we are! What's your brilliant plan now?"

One of the figures nudged one of his friends.

"She's talking too much," he whispered. "Should we gag her?"

Tigress let out a threatening growl.

"I don't think we should even get near her mouth," the other figure answered. "At least we managed to tie up her wrists."

Tigress felt the ropes binding her wrists. She could easily break free. But how well would she do against these figures if Dianli wouldn't help?

Tigress saw Dianli giving her a calm look. This was all according to plan, and they weren't in real danger. Were they?

Tigress looked at where they were going. A few trees had come into view. As they got closer, parts of buildings revealed themselves and Tigress thought she almost recognized them. No, she did recognize them, especially as they got closer. She recognized them from not too long ago. _Her vision!_

Tigress turned to look at the guards. They were pandas covered in mud. Pandas!

The rest of the village came into view. Two or three pandas were checking on the growing crops. They stopped to look at the new arrivals, but went to their work again.

"Elder," said one of the muddy pandas, "we caught these two in the swamp."

Tigress looked at who the guard was talking to. An elderly panda in green robes with yellow trim and designs stood up and turned to see them. He was about Po's size. Maybe taller.

The Elder approached Tigress and Dianli.

"What were you two doing so close to our village?" he asked. "Especially at this time of night?"

Dianli nudged Tigress, who was still in shock.

"Our apologies," Tigress said humbly. "We were just wandering."

"Hmm..." the Elder said. "Untie them."

The guards took the ropes off of Tigress and Dianli's wrists.

"Elder," Tigress started, "there's something I want to ask you."

The Elder went back into his small shrine and tended to some of the dripping candles.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Do you remember a few days ago, when you sensed something or someone nearby, but couldn't see them?"

The Elder looked at her, surprised.

"Yes," he said. "How did you know about that?"

"That was my presence you felt," Tigress told him. "There must have been a reason why I had a vision of this place and of you."

The Elder was lost in thought for a moment.

"Perhaps you can tell me if Lord Shen is no longer a threat to us," he said, sorrow in his voice.

"He was killed by his own actions a little over a year ago," Tigress answered. "He was defeated by a friend of mine. Another panda."

The Elder was shocked.

"Another panda?" he asked. "I thought we were the only ones."

"No one has left this village without returning soon after," one of the guards said, as shocked as his Elder.

"His name is Po," Tigress continued. "He was orphaned by Shen and was adopted by a goose in the Valley of Peace."

She paused.

"Elder, did you lose your wife and infant son in Shen's raid?"

A tear fell from the Elder's eye.

"Yes," he said, turning back to the candles. "I told her to take him and run, and I never saw them since."

Tigress sensed an intense sorrow in his voice.

"Elder," she started again, "Po was certain of his mother's death, but had no idea if his father was dead or alive. I was helping him learn how to honor the dead when I had the vision that led me here."

"I... I can't be sure," the Elder said. "If I could only see him, I could tell."

"Come to the Valley in one week," Tigress told him. "By then, everyone will be back. And you won't have to worry about Shen or his minions attacking you. That, I can guarantee."

The Elder looked like he couldn't believe he was hearing this. Tigress couldn't quite believe what had happened, either. Was she about to reunite Po with his birth father?

Dianli nudged Tigress.

"What?" Tigress asked, a little annoyed.

She followed Dianli's gaze and saw a potted blue orchid with light blue water droplet markings. It was drooping down with a clear liquid dripping out, as if it were crying.

The Elder had looked at Tigress and followed her gaze.

"The Weeping Orchid?" he asked. "Were you looking for one?"

"Yes!" Tigress answered, surprised. "How often can those be found?"

"Around here," the Elder told her, "we find new ones daily."

Tigress looked at Dianli, who had a big smile on her face.

"You need to make the Moonlit Draught, don't you?" the Elder asked.

"Yes," Tigress said, surprised once again. "How did you know?"

"It's the only use for the weeping orchids that I know about," the Elder responded. "I'm betting you don't have all the ingredients yet. I'm sure you can easily find one on your way out."

Tigress and Dianli bowed to him.

"Thank you, Elder," Tigress said.

* * *

The sky was turning from pink to orange when Shifu stirred from sleep. He sat up and was surprised to see that he was the last to wake up. In addition to that, Tigress and Dianli, with mud caked onto their pants, were sitting in front of a newly kindled fire. Dianli pointed out a mud smear on Tigress's face, who promptly wiped it off. They saw that Shifu had just woken.

"Good morning, Master," Tigress said as Tian walked back from the stream with a weeping orchid. "Did you sleep well?"

* * *

**I am not going to give a name to Po's dad other than "Elder". We'll probably hear his name in Kung Fu Panda 3.**

**If you have not read my announcement about my FanFictions from my profile, I'll gladly tell you now: I'm planning on getting all of my Kung Fu Panda stories out by 2016, when Kung Fu Panda 3 comes out. The movies have tendencies to completely destroy one's FanFiction, as Madagascar 3 did with my previous Madagascar FanFiction. Wish me luck!**


	14. Heart of a Dragon

_Chapter Fourteen: Heart of a Dragon_

The small group of four walked along a mountain pass. On one side was a steep climb. On the other was a hill Po would have loved to roll down, if he avoided the many stalks of bamboo. In addition to all this, there was a deep fog. They could barely see a few feet ahead of them.

"We'll be there tomorrow morning," Shifu told Tian, continuing their discussion.

"We'll be where tomorrow?" Tian asked. "I might know where we're going if you'd just tell me!"

"I know for a fact that I'm the only one who knows where it is," Shifu said firmly. "Well, Dianli might know where it is. But she isn't one to just say."

Dianli rolled her eyes as Shifu and Tian kept talking. She turned to look at Tigress, who was a bit nervous in the fog. Someone could easily be hiding nearby, waiting to attack any approaching groups of insignificant size.

As they kept walking, they saw a huge boulder emerge from the fog. Its features began showing as they got closer. It was a sitting dragon with one claw on the ground and the other raised as if to scratch any passersby. Its mouth was open and its eyes glared down at the small group as they stopped to look at it.

"The Dragon of Dragon's Maw Cavern," Shifu said. "It has long been said that an ancient civilization used the cavern for Rites of Passage. One was considered to have exceeding bravery and power if they could reach the farthest end of the cavern and come back alive."

"But people stopped being able to do so," Tian added. "They stopped this tradition and settled on new ones."

"That makes me wonder how much stronger our ancestors were than we are," Tigress said.

"And Master Oogway walked among them," Shifu continued. "It has also been said that he had carved this statue with just a tap of his staff. But he didn't. He told me himself."

Tigress laughed a little.

"But he was able to," she said, "otherwise, you would have said 'couldn't'."

"How can someone carve a statue," Tian asked, "with one tap of a staff? It's impossible!"

"But Master Oogway did the impossible," Shifu told her. "We should continue on our way. We still have two more ingredients to find."

"Master," Tigress asked as she began walking again, "will we see the Dragon's Maw?"

"If you're observant, yes," Shifu answered. "We're lucky we don't have to find anything in there."

"I agree," Tian said. "Going through that cavern is incredibly dangerous and -!"

She stopped and listened to the wind. Something wasn't right. Shifu made ready to fight any incoming danger.

A figure landed just behind them. The peahen glared at them with a sharp gaze.

"Ting!" Tian proclaimed.

Tigress fell backward as Ting was suddenly in her face. She was about to nerve-attack her, but realized what she was doing. She grabbed a clod of dirt and slammed it into Ting's face, buying her a chance to run.

At first, she rolled down the bamboo hill because she didn't have time to get up. She stopped her descent by grabbing a stalk. She got up and continued downward.

_Where are they? If Ting is here, Wang and Zhanshi aren't far behind!_

Tigress tripped and fell onto flat ground. She looked up. There was a cave entrance with a row each of stalagmites and stalactites. The Dragon's Maw.

_Do I dare?_

She got up, heart racing. She could make it look like she'd gone into the cavern, creating quite a diversion if it worked. But before she could make up her mind, someone slammed onto her back, knocking her down again. She tried to pick up something, anything, to hit Ting with, but a talon pinned her arm to the ground.

"It's pitiful what you've been reduced to," Ting told her.

Maybe Tigress couldn't throw anything at her, but Shifu and Tian slammed into the peahen, knocking her off Tigress. Ting chuckled to herself as she slowly got back up. Tigress had scrambled to her feet and Shifu and Tian had placed themselves between her and Ting.

"You've done well, Tian," Ting said. "You've kept on your toes and your vision sharp since you left."

"You're going to say that we've lost, aren't you?" Tian told her. "Well, we haven't!"

"I know," Ting continued, "but I wasn't going to say that anyway."

This caught Tigress and Shifu off-guard.

"Don't believe a word she says!" Tian told them both. "Any second now, and Wang and Zhanshi will come and take Tigress!"

"Actually, no," Ting said. "Had I stayed, I would have slowed them down and Wang would abandon me. If I can't slow them down any longer, I can speed up your flight."

Tian scoffed.

"How can I tell you aren't lying?" she demanded.

"You can't," Ting answered. "But perhaps this will change your mind about me."

She was suddenly holding a potted red and orange flower. The red and jagged orange petals gave it the appearance of a dragon's head while the two leaves on its stem looked like dragon wings.

Tian's expression suddenly softened.

"You really left?" she asked. "It took you long enough."

"Wang is an old fool," Ting said, giving the plant to Tian. "Somehow, you and I have managed to see through his lies, as I wish I'd done sooner."

Tian grew agitated again.

"Why did you just attack us?" she asked. "Couldn't you have just walked up and offered us the dragon lily?"

"Tian, you know how much I love to test you," Ting said.

"Yes," Tian said grudgingly. "Especially during my first year."

"However," Ting began, "there was one of you that saw through my charade from the start."

"Who?" Tigress asked.

"Her," Ting answered, motioning to her right.

Dianli suddenly dropped onto the ground from her perch in the bamboo, the weeping orchid in hand.

"Which is why she never attacked," Shifu said.

Dianli gave Tian the weeping orchid.

"We have only one more to find," Tian said.

"I would consider it the easiest to find," Shifu told her, "since I already knew where it was."

"The moon blossom?" Tian asked, startled. "You knew all along? Where is it?"

Shifu smiled and started walking.

"We'll be there in the morning."


	15. Memories Past

_Chapter Fifteen: Memories Past_

The sun rose over the distant mountains, its light shining onto the mist-ridden land below. The small group of five walked silently through a thinning bamboo forest, slight fatigue nipping at their heels. Tigress couldn't help but wonder how well the others were doing against the other two soothsayers.

"We're nearly there," Shifu said out of the blue.

Tian looked at the soundless surroundings.

"This seems... somewhat familiar," she said. "Have I been here before?"

"Yes," Shifu told her.

Tian was surprised.

"Then why don't I remember?" she asked.

Her words faded as they stopped at the edge of the forest. There stood an old cottage, which seemed to have been long since deserted and forgotten.

"Because we left this house when you were two," Shifu said. "Welcome home, Tian."

Tian was almost breathless. Everyone walked up to the cottage and peered inside when Shifu opened the door. There was a layer of dust on the floors, windowsills, and any other flat surface. Ting lightly knocked on a wall.

"Despite how long this has been standing," she said, "this is still a perfectly sound building."

"My parents wanted just the right place to start their family," Shifu told her.

Tian looked around, still silent and very close to tears.

"I can barely remember much," she said very quietly. "A touch here, a brush against the wall there..."

She let out a small laugh.

"Even knocking heads with you once or twice."

"We did that often," Shifu told her.

"But I don't understand," Tian said. "You said the moon blossom was here. Where is it?"

"It's over here," Shifu answered.

He led Tian to the kitchen and motioned out the open window. Tian's eyes widened as she saw it. She ran out the door and a foot or two short of the nearby cliff. She knelt beside a flower that seemed to be very close to withering beyond repair. Shifu walked up behind her.

"How did you know it was here?" Tian asked.

"Mother planted it herself," Shifu responded. "I remember seeing her tend it daily. I even asked Father why Mother was such a bad gardener and was nearly swatted because of it."

Tian laughed at how innocent her brother had been.

"That's the moon blossom?"

Shifu and Tian turned to see Tigress and Ting standing behind them.

"Yes," Tian said, lightly touching the small plant. "It will undergo a very significant change tonight, as the full moon rises."

"We made it here with hours to spare," Ting said. "But we still have much to do before dusk."

* * *

By afternoon, Tigress felt as if she'd seen every inch of the cottage many times over. She tried meditating once or twice, but the excitement of being so close to getting advanced Kung Fu back kept her from doing so. The wait seemed to drag on for ages, but at last, the sun sank below the horizon.

Everyone gathered at the cliff as Tian set a small cauldron of water to boil. Ting put the weeping orchid flower head in the water, which quickly turned cloudy. Tian poured in the crystal ivy powder as Ting stirred the potion. The potion seemed to turn to mud.

_How does that work?_ Tigress thought to herself.

Tian added the dragon lily flower head and the potion suddenly glowed and sparked as if it were magma.

"Now we wait," she said.

Tigress grew anxious as the moon peeked up over the horizon. It inched upward, and she watched the withered flower.

Nothing happened for several moments. Then things happened all at once. The withered stem and leaves grew full. As the flower was about to bloom, it pointed itself at the moon. It bloomed, its seven circular petals unfolding and turning from dark gray to glowing white.

Everyone seemed to be motionless with awe until Shifu stepped forward. He gently plucked the petals and handed them to Tian. She held the petals over the angrily spitting potion and let them fall in. When the petals floated down to the potion and made contact, they seemed to calm the liquid before melting in. After all the petals melted, the potion turned clear as if nothing had been added in the first place. Then, it glowed milky white like the moon rising in the east sky.

"It worked," Ting said.

Tian poured some of the potion into a bowl and handed it to Tigress.

"Good luck," she said.

Tigress hesitated before drinking the draught. Seconds passed without anything happening.

"I don't feel any different," she said.

She suddenly gasped and dropped the bowl. She dropped to her knees and could barely keep from falling flat onto the ground.

"Tigress!" Shifu cried.

He reached for her, but Tian stopped him.

"Don't touch her!" Tian told him. "The curse could spread to you!"

"She will be fine," Ting said.

Tigress couldn't hold herself up any longer. She fell to the ground and her vision faded.

* * *

"_Shifu?" Tigress called. "Tian? Dianli? Ting? Where are you?"_

_She was kneeling in the middle of a dark mist. She stood up and looked around. She could hear someone moving around behind her and turned to see. She still couldn't see through the mist._

"_Miss me?"_

_Tigress grew panicked as she heard Huang Zu's voice right behind her. She turned and slashed at him, but he disappeared into dust._

_Tigress tried to figure out what was happening when she heard crying some distance behind her. She turned to see a small tiger girl sitting with her back turned to her, sobbing quietly in the middle of a wide beam of light. Tigress walked up to her and knelt behind her._

"_Are you okay?" she asked._

_The girl turned to look at her, startling Tigress. She was looking into her own eyes!_

_The young Tigress pounced on her older self, causing the real Tigress to jump back. She stepped back from there and found no ground beneath her, falling into oblivion._

_As she fell, she saw many memories from her past, pleasant and unpleasant, flash across her eyes. At long last, she hit solid ground. She got up, expecting pain, but none came._

_She saw the giant form of Wang appear out of the darkness and he started to reach for her. Tigress stepped backward too fast and tripped over something. Wang almost had her, but a mark appeared on his palm:_

停

_As soon as the mark appeared, a barrier formed over Tigress. Wang tried many times to get through the barrier, but no attempt worked. The mark appeared on his forehead and he acted as if he had a very severe headache. He started glowing very brightly and Tigress felt herself get thrown back by some large force..._

* * *

Tigress opened her eyes. Her vision was slowly returning and she felt stiff. Her surroundings were starting to light up with the coming of the morn. She caught sight of the moon blossom as it had been before the night came.

Tigress wearily rose to her feet, gaining strength as the seconds ticked on. Her companions seemed to have been awake all night for her, but showed no sign of exhaustion.

Dianli stepped aside, revealing the candle stand she had set up. It had six candles on it, and only the center one on the bottom row was lit.

Tigress understood what she had to do. She walked to the candles and began her Seeing technique. Her companions saw the symbol on the back of her neck start glowing, but Tigress didn't stop. As soon as the candles were lit, she froze with a dazed look on her face. The others saw the symbol fade soon after.

"Cured," Dianli said.

Tian and Ting looked at her, shocked.

"She is cured," Shifu said, "but what does she See?"

Only Tigress knew the answer, _for she saw seven Masters running toward a large meadow that was littered with boulders of many sizes. Just ahead of them were their two foes..._

* * *

**Yes, that symbol was the same one that appeared on Tigress's neck.**

**The five candles are supposed to symbolize Po, Viper, Monkey, Mantis, Crane, and Vixey, and are the same ones that Tigress had used when the six of them had supposedly died in Unseen Eyes. Why there isn't a candle for Jin is because Tigress isn't as familiar with him as she is with the others.**

**The next chapter is very exciting and I'm very excited to finally be able to start writing it now! Stay tuned!**


	16. Shining Wings

_Chapter Sixteen: Shining Wings_

The Masters ran toward the two soothsayers, ready to fight.

"Have you come to try to best us, children?" crowed Zhanshi from a high perch.

The Masters stopped almost as quickly as Crane did. By the look of him, he was furious. His feathers were ruffled and he glared at the old bird with malice - very much unlike his character.

"Monkey, take this," he said, giving his teammate his hat. "You guys take Wang."

"And you go against Zhanshi by yourself?!" Viper almost shrieked, doubt clearly marked on her face.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Po added in the same tone.

Without a word, Crane leapt into the air, his comrades staring on in disbelief.

"Yeah, he's lost it," Mantis said.

"Come on!" Jin told the others. "Let's get Wang before he can help Zhanshi!"

He and the others hurried off to fulfill their task.

* * *

As soon as Zhanshi saw Crane start to make a beeline to his position, he shot into the air, readying for an aerial battle.

"Kung Fu can't help you up here, boy," the old bird cackled. "Is this really how your Master taught you?"

"I don't need Kung Fu to defeat you, Zhanshi!" Crane shouted.

"This is how you address your elders?" Zhanshi tauntingly asked. "With many years comes much wisdom. You have hardly learned anything by challenging me in the skies!"

"If you have so much wisdom," Crane snapped, "then why can't you tell the difference between a child and an adult? For all you know, you're as much of a child as I am!"

Zhanshi, in his anger, shot toward Crane, who did the same. When they were in reach of each other, they snapped and clawed at each other, both losing several feathers in the process. Once, Crane had caught Zhanshi by the beak and threw him at a nearby boulder. The old bird managed to recover before even one scrape could be made.

The birds exchanged attacks as often as they could. Crane eventually felt a searing cut on his wing from one of Zhanshi's talons. Already, with the loss of several feathers, he had difficulty maintaining his flight. Now with this cut, he had to be extra careful to avoid any more damage, or else he'll fall out of the sky.

Crane attacked frantically with his talons, tearing several more feathers from his foe. Zhanshi then rammed him in the face, causing the dazed younger bird to drop several feet before catching himself.

He was running out of options. And patience. Zhanshi had to be taken out. But how?

An idea crossed his mind. He thought of it as risky, but it was a chance he'd have to take.

Crane climbed upward into the air as quickly as his injured wings could carry him. Zhanshi tried to follow, but his old wings could only get him so far. As the distance between them increased, Zhanshi grew more and more furious.

"Come back and fight, coward!" he shouted.

At that very moment, Crane stopped his ascent and looked down at his foe.

"You call this cowardly?" he cried.

He dove toward Zhanshi and began to corkscrew. Zhanshi realized that it would be a fatal blow, possibly for both of them, if it hit directly. He moved back a small amount - just as Crane thought he would. He did not change his direction and purposely missed Zhanshi's wing by a mere fraction of an inch. But the shockwaves didn't miss. Almost immediately after Crane dove past Zhanshi, a loud crack shattered the air and Zhanshi was thrown downward. Crane barely managed to stop his fearsome descent before he could be fatally injured. He still crashed to the ground, but got up with a few bruises, some of which were very painful.

The others charged toward Crane, shouting about how they'd seen what had happened.

"Crane, that was amazing!" Vixey cried.

"If only Shifu saw that!" Monkey told Crane, shoving the hat back onto his head.

"But did you guys hear that crack?" Po raved.

"Who didn't?" Jin answered. "By the sound of it, you may have broken his wing in several different places!"

"Do you know how long it takes old people to heal broken bones?" Mantis told them. "He'll be lucky if he can even use it after this!"

"But what happened with Wang?" Crane asked them.

"He ran off when he saw all of us coming," Viper replied.

"We chased that coward everywhere until we heard that crack," Vixey said exhaustedly. "We kinda lost him."

"He'll be coming back for Zhanshi," Jin said. "And I saw where he landed."

* * *

Wang hurried over to where he had seen Zhanshi fall out of the air. When he finally found him, the bird was standing up, muttering about curses he'd love to put on Crane.

"Finally!" Wang crowed, "Now we can both-!"

He stopped short. The way Zhanshi was holding his wing betrayed the truth. The wing was broken.

"Master, I regret to inform you that the blasted fledgling broke my wing," Zhanshi apologized, bowing his head.

Wang was full of fury.

"A bird without wings!" he cried, "Do you understand what that makes you?!"

"Master?"

"You're useless!" the marten screamed. "A deadweight! You'll only slow me down!"

"Master!"

"I hope they rip every single feather off that scrawny little head of yours!" Wang spat, and very quickly disappeared.

Zhanshi felt there was no time to brood over his loss. He was furious. Wang had abandoned him. Left him for dead.

_A grave mistake to make, Master_.

"Give up!" came a cry from behind him.

Zhanshi turned and showed no hostility toward the panda and his team.

He lifted up his good wing.

"I surrender," he said almost too calmly, "and you have no need to interrogate me."

The Masters' faces turned to surprise.

_They started to walk toward the old bird_ when Tigress woke from her vision.

She stumbled backward a little and surveyed her surroundings. Shifu, Dianli, Tian, and Ting waited with anticipation to hear about what she saw.

"They've just defeated Wang and Zhanshi," she told them, "and Zhanshi surrendered. He has a broken wing."

"So he's finally come to his senses," Ting snapped, "He's better off without that old grump. So who broke his wing?"

"Crane."

Shifu seemed surprised.

"Alone?" he asked.

"Yes."

Tian seemed distracted and was looking at the sunrise. She was obviously deep in thought.

_Wang alone_, she thought to herself, _it won't be long before…_

She turned to the others.

"We must regroup," she declared. "Wang will stop at nothing to take Tigress. Now he is alone. It shouldn't take long to overwhelm him."

Dianli looked earnestly at Tian, agreeing. Now there was no question.

* * *

"Tighter, child."

Viper tightened the bandage on Zhanshi's wing.

"Very good," the old bird told her.

Vixey was leaning against a nearby tree.

"So," she started, "you wanted to tell us something?"

"Yes, I did."

"Then what is it?" Crane asked.

Zhanshi's face turned from slight gratitude towards them to anger towards his old master.

"Long ago, he promised each of us, Tian, Ting, and I, that he would never abandon us as long as we never abandoned him," he explained. "The fool broke his promise so severely that he will destroy himself with his own desires. He needs the three us to defeat the seven of you. He is nothing without us. I am the master of infiltration, Ting is the master of distraction, and Tian is the master of healing. Without us, he has only a slight chance of getting past your defenses, we all will be fighting him at the same time, and if he becomes injured, it would only be a matter of time before he wouldn't be able to fight anymore. We were his shields and safety net. He may be a great spell-caster, but, again, he is nothing without us."

The Masters looked impressed.

"So," Po asked, "where do we go now?"

Zhanshi pointed with his good wing.

"My senses tell me to go north," he told them. "We have friends waiting."

* * *

**Let's hear it for Crane!**


	17. Reunion

**Sorry for the long wait. I got slammed with Writer's Block for a while on this one. Enjoy!**

* * *

_Chapter Seventeen: Reunion_

The scenery passed by quickly as the seven Masters and one soothsayer raced to their destination. The swiftness of their journey was now somewhat slowed, but it was faster than what they thought it would have been. Since Crane had broken Zhanshi's wing, they had expected the journey would be exceedingly slow to keep the old bird with them. However, Zhanshi could run quickly, looking as if he had needed to depend on his running speed more than once before.

It was getting late by the time they got to a large clearing next to a huge lake. The light of twilight gave all of them an uneasy feeling as they approached the waters. They started walking around the water when they all felt as if they were being watched by cold, piercing eyes.

They all turned around. There was a boat, once belonging to a river merchant, drifting in the water, slowly coming toward them. On top were those cold eyes they were searching for.

Ting stood almost absolutely still on the roof of the cabin, keeping her sharp eyes on the eight on the shore. All of the Masters prepared to fight, but Zhanshi held up his good wing to stop them.

"You were wise to leave, Ting," the old bird told his colleague. "I assume you found them?"

"That I did," the peahen answered firmly. "They wait inside."

* * *

Once inside the boat, there was no hesitation.

"TIGRESS!"

The tiger hardly had enough time to turn around before Vixey grabbed her around the middle.

"Vixey!" she choked. "Knock it off!"

Vixey realized what she was doing and released Tigress, who had to brace herself against the table behind her for a few seconds.

The other Masters voiced their excited greetings and were quieted seconds later by Shifu.

"It's very good to see you, students," he told them. "I trust Wang didn't give you too much of a hard time?"

"Nope," Po answered. "But you will not believe what Crane did! He-!"

"We know," Tigress interrupted. "I Saw it."

"You did?" Vixey asked. "Then the curse is broken!"

"And we hope the curse will never mend," Tian said. "Now, as for mending something else that is broken..."

Zhanshi walked to Tian.

"If you wouldn't mind," the old bird told her.

Tian took the bandage off and touched the wing with a glowing palm.

"You did your task of breaking his wing well, Crane," she said. "It's shattered in two places. But it's nothing I can't fix."

"Maybe after this, you could be the head Jade Palace healer," Tigress suggested.

Tian smiled, her attention still full on Zhanshi's wing.

"I still have a few other things to do before I can consider that," she said.

She stopped working on Zhanshi's wing. Zhanshi flexed the limb, showing its full recovery.

"Now, about Wang," he said.

"Wouldn't it be better if Ting were here?" Vixey asked. "After all, she'd want in on this, too."

"She's keeping an eye out for Wang," Tian said, "and she can still hear us."

"Now that it's just Wang," Po started, "shouldn't it be easy to take him down?"

"Not quite," Zhanshi answered. "He was furious when he abandoned me. Although extreme fury can make one make stupid decisions, it can also make that one quite powerful."

"We could all overwhelm him," Jin said. "There are thirteen of us and only one of him."

"So what?" Tigress said. "We know from experience that numbers don't matter in battle."

"First there was Tai Lung against the five of us," Viper told the others. "He won by a landslide."

"And then us against Shen and his wolves," Po continued.

"Then there were the Polecats," Tigress finished.

"But didn't you and Jian Kang defeat Huang Zu?" Vixey asked.

"Yes," Tigress answered, "but it was always one-on-one. It doesn't count."

"So Wang could still sweep us?" Monkey asked. "Even with ten Kung Fu Masters and three soothsayers?"

"There has to be a limit to his power," Mantis said.

"There is," Tian answered. "He can only have so much power. If there is a prolonged battle, he cannot keep his strength up. It also takes a lot of energy to defend from a magical attack than it does to defend from a physical attack."

"It also takes up more energy to make a magical attack," Zhanshi added. "When he cursed you, Tigress, he had to rest for a while before coming to 'collect' you."

"Or you would have come that night," Tigress said.

"Precisely."

"There is also something about Wang that you must understand," Tian began. "Sometime before we became his students, he had learned how to recover energy while defending from physical attacks. This can be devastating if he uses this against us."

The boat suddenly rocked a little. Ting hurried inside.

"He's within a mile of our position," she announced. "He will be here soon."

"Then what is the plan?" Shifu asked.

"We engage him in battle as soon as he gets here," Zhanshi replied.

"Yeah!" Po shouted. "Let's show him what we got!"

"And you all leave for safety," Tian said suddenly.

The Masters looked as if they'd seen a ghost. Dianli merely lowered her gaze in sorrow.

"What?" Shifu almost squeaked.

"We find no safety in numbers," Tian said. "I can only keep watch over so many at the same time."

"You will cause unnecessary danger to yourself if you stay," Zhanshi told them.

"We will fight Wang," Ting said. "Whether we win or lose, it ends today."

"But we can help you!" Shifu cried.

"You don't really know that that isn't your decision to make," Zhanshi told him.

"We know at least ten different spells that will either teleport you across China or will give us complete control of your bodies for long enough to make you march yourselves out of Wang's reach," Ting threatened. "You are too valuable. Each of us was taught by that monster, and now we must pay for it."

Shifu felt like a rock dropped down his throat. That was just how he felt when he told Po and the Five to evacuate before he and Tai Lung fought. That he needed to pay for unknowingly creating a monster.

Everyone was silent for several seconds. Tigress hesitated and finally spoke.

"We appreciate everything you've done and will do for us," she told the soothsayers respectfully. "Whether you come away from this fight victorious or as hopelessly mangled corpses, we will honor you."

The soothsayers saw through Tigress's trick.

"You can't tell us otherwise, child," Zhanshi told her, "Fear has no place among us now."

"Thank you for your concern, though," Tian said, sounding like she was hiding heartbreak.

"If we fail and it eventually comes time for you to face Wang," Ting said solemnly, "we wish you best of luck and hope that you will be victorious."

The soothsayers bowed to the Masters. Defeated, the Masters returned the gesture.

When they all rose, Tian looked at Shifu and seemed to be near tears.

"Shifu?" she whispered as the Masters were leaving.

Shifu turned.

"I remember her. I remember Mother."

* * *

The soothsayers watched from atop the roof as the Masters vanished from sight. An unsettling feeling emanated from each of them.

"He will be here soon," Tian announced.

"The sooner he comes, the sooner we can teach him the lessons we've wanted to teach him for years," Ting spat.

"Friends," Zhanshi spoke, "it has been an honor learning and serving with you."

A small figure arose from the horizon, bright red in the gathering darkness.

* * *

**Extreme awesomeness coming up in the next few chapters! Stay tuned!**


	18. The Battle of Master and Students

_Chapter Eighteen: The Battle of Master and Students_

Wang moved his raft with a spell. The markings glowed bright red on the surface of the wood, and he was standing in the very center, hand extended towards his destination.

He heard them approach. Ting and Zhanshi were flying toward him with Tian on Ting's back. Tian jumped off and Ting propelled her to the raft, causing her to skid over the markings, disrupting the spell.

The raft slowed to a stop as Ting and Zhanshi landed beside Tian. All soothsayers were tense and ready to fight at a second's notice.

"You dare defy me again?" Wang demanded, "I will not hesitate to destroy you when I get the chance!"

"We don't doubt that," Tian retorted coldly, "but I see dark bars in your future if you underestimate us!"

Wang suddenly made several sharp jabs in the air toward his students, making a dark mist materialize and shoot toward the other three. Ting made a shrill squawk and began to glow with a white light. She stood behind Tian and Zhanshi stood behind her. She squawked again and the other two began glowing with the same light. Just before Wang's attack could hit, Zhanshi crossed his wings in front of Tian, who then put two fingers on the intersection. The dark energy hit Zhanshi's wings and flew past its mark as if the three soothsayers had been in a protective bubble. Instant death had just been averted.

As soon as the students broke formation, Ting ran at Wang, furiously striking the air with her wings. Streaks of fire zoomed at the marten, but he either dodged them or sent gusts of wind to counter. Wang then used a large gust to swallow up some of the fire, turning it into a funnel of fire. He sent it at his students, but Zhanshi blocked it without getting a single burn. Tian sent bubbles of water at the funnel, dissolving it into a tower of steam. Finding Wang momentarily blinded, Zhanshi brought mud up from the bottom of the lake and attempted to coat his master in the slippery substance. Wang then used the remaining steam to block the attack.

Any passersby could have marveled at how the four soothsayers resembled the four natural elements. It would truly have been a sight to see if they weren't fighting each other.

The fight stopped for a few moments. Each soothsayer froze in place and time seemed to slow down.

_Your mind tricks won't work,_ sounded Zhanshi's voice.

Wang's voice vibrated through the air. _I will always be more superior. Surrender your will to me!_

Tian could feel her head start to throb.

Ting's voice pierced their minds. _Back off! Keep your mind to yourself!_

The conflicting minds echoed off Tian's, resulting in a splitting pain. She put up mental walls, shutting herself out of the fight.

_You fell for it._

Tian felt herself get thrown back. She hit the mast and fell to the ground, breathless and dazed.

Ting mentally stabbed at Wang, causing the marten to slightly wince with each blow. Zhanshi worked to disable Wang's spell.

Tian recovered enough to walk toward her comrades. She stumbled a little because of her throbbing head. She began a spell, drawing a symbol on the ground. A light erupted from it and a circle appeared around Tian. Two lines sprouted from it, one on her right side and one on her left, ending at the edge of the raft. Bright walls rose from the markings, surrounding Tian and forming walls behind Ting and Zhanshi.

The birds immediately released their mental grip and were sent flying, straight into and through the walls Tian's spell made, halting them and gently setting them on their feet.

The circle surrounding Tian glowed brighter. The red panda closed her eyes as the spell began to heal her. Wang struck at Tian, but the spell kept him from doing so. Ting and Zhanshi slashed at their master, the marten evading invisible attacks.

Wang struck the spell right in front of Tian. The red panda opened her eyes and braced herself as the feeling of needles piercing her mind intensified. Wang struck the same spot again and again, Ting and Zhanshi unable to stop him. The pain grew until Tian couldn't hold the spell any longer. The spell shattered and sent Tian into the mast again. She fell to the ground, unconscious.

Ting saw her fallen companion and her feathers raised. A terrible screeched emanated from her throat as she charged at her old master. The marten made several sharp movements, making rings of lightning expand from his body.

Ting froze. Her one weakness. The attack she could never deflect. Her only chance was to evade them, but how fast can old wings carry you? She got between the lightning and Tian and braced herself.

* * *

"I can't believe we're just walking out on them," Po fumed.

"I know," Viper said, "but we have no choice. It was either do as they say or they force us to leave."

Tigress stayed silent while the others voiced their opinions. She glanced back at Shifu, who was walking a few paces behind them. He was limping again.

"Master, are you all right?"

Shifu didn't seem to hear her. There would be only one reason why he would be limping again, which was obvious. He was terribly worried about Tian. Tigress knew he wouldn't forgive himself if Tian died and he didn't do anything about it.

A shrill, blood-curdling sound rose from a ways behind them. Everyone turned in that direction.

"What is that?!" Vixey cried.

* * *

Zhanshi stood still after he deflected the lightning thrown at him. Ting had fallen to the ground after the electricity faded. He was alone, the last one standing to at least try to defeat Wang.

"Is this _really_ what you want, Master?" he questioned. "Your three best students. I stayed with you until you abandoned me. Ting stayed until she felt you didn't care about her well-being anymore. And if you had just _listened_ to Tian. We could have made friends rather than enemies. Don't you understand, Master?"

"I understand," Wang barked. "I understand that, had I listened to that mongrel, Tigress would never be my student. Students like her don't come as common as you think!"

"I know that! But this is not the way to gain students!"

"Then why didn't you stop me before? Answer that for me!"

"I was bound by the promise I made!"

"Promises are meant to be broken, you pea-brain! Is that all you can do? Have someone else think for you? Be a man, Zhanshi!"

The last comment made Zhanshi lose his top. He summoned three energy daggers and threw them at Wang. He suddenly realized what he'd done.

Wang caught the daggers too easily.

"Forget something?"

The daggers struck Zhanshi in the chest, making him light up for a split second before falling to the ground.

Then Tian regained consciousness.


	19. Siblings' Fury

_Chapter Nineteen: Siblings' Fury_

Tian got up. She staggered as her head's throbbing got worse. Ting and Zhanshi lay unconscious near her. Her sight blurred as she cured her own injuries. When her vision returned, Wang was very close and ready to strike.

Tian flinched. She suddenly found Wang's hand on her throat, holding her against the mast.

"Do you really think I would spare you?" Wang growled. "You are a deserter. Do you know what deserters do?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt someone smaller than he was pick him up and toss him.

Shifu landed and proclaimed, "They come back!"

The attack left Wang momentarily stunned, wobbling to get up.

Shifu helped Tian stand.

"I'm sorry I didn't come earlier," he told his sister.

Tian put her hand on his shoulder.

"You would have been no better off than Ting and Zhanshi," she told him.

Shifu chuckled.

"No," he said. "After I first left, I should have returned within the month."

"Where would we be now if you had come back?"

Tian shoved her brother aside and prepared to fight Wang.

"Come, brother!" she said. "Let's make sure he never bothers our family again!"

Wang recovered from the attack and stood tall. The red pandas stood ready.

"You've messed with the wrong family," Shifu threatened.

The siblings ran forward. Wang jabbed at both of them, but Tian dove out of the way and Shifu jumped over him, hitting him in the back of the head with his staff. While the marten was temporarily distracted, Tian jabbed his forehead and activated a spell that slightly dazed him. Then his fury exploded. Not that it helped much.

Whenever Wang attacked one of the red pandas, the other would attack from behind, making him miss his mark. His frustration made him look more like a feral cat.

Shifu and Tian hardly gave each other commands, but still attacked as a perfect team. It seemed as though they could read each other's minds.

Tian grabbed the other end of Shifu's staff and Shifu swung her. Tian kicked Wang twice before letting go.

Wang grew angrier that he wasn't regaining strength. _Curse you, Tian!_

Shifu laughed.

"After all those years of fighting each other," he told Tian, "what could we have accomplished had we worked together?"

Tian jumped onto his shoulders to avoid Wang's attack. Wang struck at Shifu's feet, but the red panda jumped. The marten then attacked between the red pandas, but Tian jumped and Shifu ducked.

"I'm not sure Wang wants to find out," Tian replied.

Wang struck at the red pandas again, but Tian jumped onto his hand and pinned it to the raft and Shifu kicked the marten's jaw.

As Wang stumbled backward, his hand came loose and he grabbed Shifu's foot and tossed him aside. He turned to face Tian, her surprise and sudden fright pinning her in place.

"You were a waste of my time!" he growled.

He shot forward, ready to finish her with one move.

"NO!" cried Shifu.

He suddenly appeared between his sister and her attacker. The blow shot pain through his chest and sent him backward, colliding with Tian. The siblings were thrown into the mast behind them.

Tian got up and checked her brother. He was trying to get up, but his injury kept him from even breathing normally.

She stood to face her master.

"You promised I could be with my family," she hissed at him. "If you were true to your promise, you'd have at least tried to help me and Shifu get along."

Wang walked toward her with a chilling glare.

"You turned against your school," he chided.

Tian grew fearful and started to shake.

"No, I didn't," she whispered, just loud enough for Wang to hear. "You did."

As soon as Wang took another step, Ting appeared, screeching as if the world depended on it, in front of her master with risen feathers. Tian didn't have time to react before Zhanshi snatched her and Shifu to take them to safety. As suddenly as she had appeared, Ting leaped into the air and followed her comrades.

When Zhanshi carefully landed on the merchant boat, Tian hurried to tend to Shifu. She put her palm on his chest and started the healing process. As soon as Tian's palm began to glow, Shifu tensed up.

"_Sleep, Brother_," Tian said in a mystic voice.

Almost immediately, Shifu relaxed and fell into a deep sleep.

Tian seemed to know when Tigress approached. The other Masters stayed behind her, fearful of what had happened.

"Will he be all right?" Tigress questioned.

Tian finally answered after a few seconds.

"Had Wang placed his attack correctly," she said solemnly. "Shifu would have died before he was thrown back. He will heal."

She turned to look at Tigress and those standing behind her.

"But he will not be able to aid you in this fight."

Tigress was relieved. Shifu wasn't dying. But now they had to fight Wang. She looked at the raft he was on. The soothsayer was standing almost perfectly still, conserving strength.

Tigress turned back to Tian.

"He doesn't need to help us fight."

* * *

**Who was waiting for that? Who was waiting for Shifu and Tian to fight alongside each other?**


	20. The Final Stretch

_Chapter Twenty: The Final Stretch_

The newly waning moon lit the surroundings as Tigress swam to the raft alone. She climbed onto the raft and faced Wang.

"Why continue this, Wang?" she asked. "You're alone. You're outnumbered. You have nothing to gain by keeping this up."

Wang had a wild look on his face.

"It isn't too late to join," he told her.

"After you took my Kung Fu away and hurt my master?" Tigress asked. "I'd rather die!"

"So be it!" Wang growled.

He shot forward with the same attack that almost killed Shifu, but Tigress shoved his arm upward, frustrating the attack. She hit his arms several times and landed several firm kicks to his chest, but he barely staggered. Tigress could see that she was very quickly being overwhelmed, which the others could see very well.

Wang was suddenly splashed with water and was knocked aside by a firm blow to his temple. He began to be pounded by a variety of attacks as the other Masters appeared from the water.

Back on the merchant boat, Shifu woke from sleep. He could see the awe on the soothsayers' faces and turned to see his students brutally attack Wang.

Tigress continued to hit Wang with attack after attack and stood back to rest for a few seconds. Even with everyone attacking him, Wang kept moving closer to her, one step at a time. Tigress racked her mind for any possible way to finish this and came upon one solution.

"Po!" she called. "Panda Ball Slam! Now!"

"Now?!" Po replied. "But we haven't mastered it ye-!"

"Now!"

Po didn't wait to be asked again. He climbed onto the raft and jumped into the air when Tigress did. The others helped propel them into the air by striking their feet. Jin and Dianli caught on as quickly as if they had been there for practice. Po and Tigress climbed higher and higher into the air. When they were high enough, everyone but Wang bolted from around the raft. Wang only had enough time to look up. Tigress wished for luck as she was about to slam down on Po. She came down on Po, and Po fell with exceeding force onto Wang - without letting go of his feet.

The sound of a deafening thunder clap shattered the air as giant waves flowed from the point of impact. Any passersby could only hope to know what caused this miraculous phenomenon.

Tigress found herself drifting to the merchant boat on the diminishing waves. She hadn't lost consciousness, but the success of the attack caused enough of a shock to stun her. The others were waiting for her as she climbed onto the boat.

"Master! You're awake!" she proclaimed.

Shifu still seemed to be too hurt to stand, but he was sitting up against the wall of the cabin.

"Yes," he said. "I woke in time to see that final attack. Very well done, everyone."

His students bowed.

"Thank you, Master," they said in unison.

"So," Crane said, "how long will it take you to heal?"

"It may be a few days," Tian said. "If I know my brother, he should heal in a week, at the most."

"Wouldn't it be easier if we went home?" Mantis asked.

"It should be," Viper answered. "But the journey might be a little rough."

"Since when has the journey not been rough?" Vixey piped up. "Honestly! I swear I have ten blisters already!"

"Get used to it," Monkey told her.

Ting suddenly grew very alert as she looked past Tigress. The others followed her sight. Wang had surfaced, clinging to the broken remains of his raft.

Tigress turned to face her friends.

"We don't have to worry about him anymore," she said. "Even with your help, Tian, it would be a while before he could re-AH!"

The others grew alarmed, but even more so when they heard another sound:

_Clink-clink!_


	21. Deeper Power

_Chapter Twenty-One: Deeper Power_

A wide, gold band appeared around Tigress's neck. It wasn't even a second before she grabbed her neck and gasped for air. The soothsayers grew as frightened as anyone could be and turned to see Wang. He was standing and holding his hand out, ever so slowly closing his hand.

"Kill him!" Tian shrieked. "If he closes his hand, Tigress will die!"

The others had already begun to send projectiles in Wang's direction. Whenever any would get close enough to cause harm, Wang would dodge it without altering his spell.

Tigress fell to her knees. She felt her life escaping her. Time seemed to slow down drastically. She looked at everyone fighting for her. They were all frantic. Shifu was especially panicked. His own daughter's life was slipping away, and he couldn't do a thing about it.

Then Tigress realized something else that troubled her even more. Dianli was frantic. She's never frantic.

Tigress felt very close to collapsing. The lack of air clouded her mind and she thought she saw two extra figures. No, she _did_ see them. They were the pale figures of Li and Shijue, looking down on their daughter with faces of sorrow.

_It wasn't supposed to end this way._

Tigress turned as much as she could to see Wang with her failing sight. She wished that, if she really were to die, she could take him down with her. After all, that would always be her last wish: to drag her killer out of this life, kicking and screaming if necessary.

Tigress felt as if she were drifting away from her dying body.

_This must be it,_ she thought to herself.

But for some reason, she found herself flying toward Wang, whose fist was almost closed. Tigress didn't slow down. When she made contact with Wang, everything whited out.

Tigress fell to the ground, taking deep breaths of air. The others looked at either her or Wang in shock. Wang had just fallen backward without being hit by any material object.

Tian knelt by Tigress and checked her.

"She's only fainted," she said. "She'll be fine."

"She killed him," Zhanshi marveled, his gaze still on his fallen master.

The Masters remained silent in awe.

Ting picked up a large, broken piece of wood.

"How proud Wang must be," she said, examining the wood, "to have been the first to be killed by Tigress's ability."

She set the wood on fire.

"Think on that while your ashes sink to the lakebed, Master."

She shot the flaming debris at the dead marten. The projectile landed next to the body and caught the sleeve on fire. After mere seconds of burning, Wang's body slipped into the water, sinking deep into his watery grave.

After watching this, Shifu turned wearily to the others.

"Let's go home."

* * *

**I just realized that I'm making these chapters smaller and smaller! I'm sorry! Hopefully, next chapter will be longer!**


	22. Separate Ways

**Major announcement chapter! If you don't understand, just read the chapter!**

* * *

_Chapter Twenty-Two: Separate Ways_

It was a crisp, clear morning at the Jade Palace. Handfuls of crinkled autumn leaves often drifted through the air.

Vixey walked around outside, admiring the sights. But something caught her attention: the sight of Shifu taking a stroll, which is exactly what his sister told him to _not_ do.

He seemed to be struggling to keep walking and he never stopped having a look of slight pain on his face. He seemed to be deep in thought about something.

"Uh, Master?" Vixey asked. "Aren't you supposed to be inside?"

Shifu looked up quickly, as if he were trying to avoid getting seen.

"Oh," he tried to explain, "I was... uh... a short stroll can't do me any harm. In fact, it can help much more than many hours of bed rest can d-!"

"Shifu!"

Shifu and Vixey turned to see Tian making a beeline for her brother with Ting and Zhanshi following.

"What did I tell you?" she demanded.

"I'll be fine, Tian," Shifu told her.

"You wouldn't have been fine if it weren't for me!" Tian chided. "You'd do to what Mother told you to do! Now get inside before -!"

"Before I catch a cold?" Shifu said sarcastically. "Fresh air can't do me any harm."

"If you only wanted some fresh air, you would have only opened a window!"

Vixey remained silent and still as her eyes kept shifting to whoever was talking.

"I won't be outside for long," Shifu told Tian. "Does anyone know if Tigress has woken?"

"Yes."

Tian fell silent as she and the others looked up at Tigress, who had just appeared.

"Vixey, you're dismissed," Shifu said.

Vixey nodded slowly and silently left the scene.

"You wanted to speak with me, Master?" Tigress asked.

"Yes," Shifu told her, sitting down on some nearby steps and shoving Tian away when she tried to help him. "We were discussing your Seeing ability not too long ago."

"Apparently," Tian growled, "it was long enough for you to wander off."

"Since this concerns you," Shifu continued, ignoring his sister, "we need to inform you of your ability."

"Okay," Tigress responded expectantly.

"While you may be a Seer," Zhanshi started, "but you are not the kind of Seer we thought you are."

"This puzzled me, too," Shifu told Tigress upon seeing her expression.

"We thought you were a Seer from birth," Zhanshi continued. "But that kind of Seer cannot use that ability to kill, even when their life is in danger."

"Then what kind of Seer am I?" Tigress asked.

"You gained your ability through your skill in Kung Fu," Ting said. "Very few can ever achieve this stage in Kung Fu."

"Master Oogway was a Seer," Shifu said.

"I don't doubt that," Tigress replied.

"Tigress, I must tell you," Tian said. "Any kind of Seer can pass down his or her ability through birth, but, of course, any child you decide to have will have the other kind of Seeing ability."

"Is there anything else?" Tigress asked.

"Yes," Shifu told her. "This ability doesn't just label you as a prodigy. Technically, you are at a higher stage of Kung Fu than even I am."

Tigress was shocked. She had passed by Shifu without even knowing it?

"There is something I must ask of you," Shifu began.

"Yes, Master?" Tigress asked.

"Are you willing to become my successor?"

Tigress was breathless.

"Will you become the next Grand Master of the Jade Palace?"

Silence filled the air as the soothsayers looked with wide eyes at Tigress, who was frozen with surprise.

"I..." she began, "Yes. I will."

Silence lasted for only a second or two.

"Grand Master?" Ting breathed. "That is such a large responsibility."

"And such a wise choice," Zhanshi said, bowing to Tigress.

"I never thought I'd-" Tian started, but Shifu cut her off.

"Tigress," he said, "you alone have the choice to tell anyone else about this or to remain silent. It would be easiest to train for this position if barely anyone knew about your decision."

"I understand," Tigress told him.

Zhanshi cleared his throat. Everyone turned to look at him.

"We have been away from the school for too long," he said, almost sorrowfully.

"What will happen now?" Tigress asked. "Now that Wang is dead, I mean."

"I will take his place as headmaster," Zhanshi answered. "I was next in line anyway. Although, word will not go out about how he died."

"Smart choice," Ting said.

"Will you return?" Zhanshi asked her and Tian.

"No," Ting replied, "I won't. I believe I should retire from being a teacher. I want to leave for Gongmen City, to rebuild what that blithering fool destroyed."

"The Tower of Sacred Flame?" Tigress asked.

"Not just that," Ting continued. "The honor of the peacocks, everyone's trust in the peacocks, everything. It all has been in need of a rebuild since Shen's tragic decision."

She had almost gagged upon saying Shen's name.

"I wish you luck," Tigress told her.

"As for me," Tian started, "I want to find Father and put him on the right path."

"Good luck," Shifu merely stated.

"After that," Tian continued, "I may come back and become a healer here."

"We will be waiting for you to return," Shifu told her.

Tian smiled.

"Thank you, Shifu."

"Well," Zhanshi spoke, "should we?"

The soothsayers made ready to leave.

"Excuse me, Tian?" Tigress said suddenly.

Tian turned.

"Since the original caretaker has long since passed," she started, "would I be able to retrieve something?"

* * *

In the late afternoon, Tigress returned to the Jade Palace. She headed toward the barracks and almost passed by Po.

"You were gone a while," Po told Tigress. "What's that?"

Tigress looked at the flower pot in her hands that held a withered flower. She looked back at him and smiled.

"I'll tell you next month," she said as she walked by.

"Next month?!" Po asked.

"Oh, and Po," Tigress said suddenly, turning back, "there's someone I need you and Mr. Ping to meet in the village square in about an hour."

"Who is he?"

"You'll know him when you see him," Tigress merely stated.

* * *

Po felt awkward just standing in the village square with his dad. Who was that person Tigress wanted him to meet anyway?

"So who are we waiting for, Po?" Mr. Ping asked. "Is it a girl?"

"No, it's a guy," Po told him, a little exasperated. "I know for sure Tigress said 'him'."

As the shadows grew longer, Po grew more impatient.

"Is he here yet?"

Po turned to find Tigress walking up to him.

"What's the deal?" he asked. "Where is he? Who is he?"

Tigress looked past him.

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" she asked.

Po turned around. His eyes widened.

Everyone in the square stopped all activity and was gazing at the three newcomers walking toward the square. Three pandas, one in a green robe while the other two, one on each side of their leader, wore normal clothing under makeshift armor and carried spears.

The three pandas walked into the village square and stopped a foot or two short of the panda, goose, and tiger. Po gazed at the Elder and remembered the last time he'd seen him - as if it were only yesterday.

Hardly able to believe this, Po could only whisper two words:

"No way."


	23. What's Next?

_**What's Next?**_

**Sequel:** Kung Fu Panda: Battle of the Millennia

**Summary:** Third Installment of the Tiger's Eye Series and sequel to Kung Fu Panda: Curse of the Seer. Due to unfortunate circumstances, the Masters of the Jade Palace are chased from their home and from place to place in all of China. Will they regain control in time, or will the Valley of Peace fall to chaos?

* * *

**Detour(s):** Rebuilding the Tower of Sacred Flame

**Summary:** Ting returns to Gongmen City with hopes to rebuild the Peacocks' pride and joy: the Tower of the Sacred Flame. The question of whether the tower will stand is already clear. But the real question is: will Ting's efforts redeem her species, or will it all go up in flames?

**Note:** Rebuilding the Tower of Sacred Flame may take a while to get published.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

The original cure for the curse was to release Kung Fu, just like in the tale of the Monkey King.

I had actually finished writing all of the chapters days ago. It was thanks to my old Creative Writing class in high school that I had written at least a part of a handful of chapters. That was why I was usually able to publish chapters so quickly.

* * *

**Questions for the Viewers **_**(Please answer one or more in a review)**_**:**

_What was your favorite part in my fanfiction?_

_What was your least favorite part in my fanfiction?_

_Was this fanfiction better than its prequel?_

_Who is your favorite character so far?_

_Was I predictable or unpredictable?_

_What surprised you the most?_

_In your opinion, what could I have improved on?_

_On a scale of 1-10, how were the new ally characters, Jin, Tian, Ting, and Zhanshi? *Note* I won't mind lower scores for Jin, since he got a very small role in this fanfiction, which will change in the next one._

_Which of the four potion flowers is your favorite?_

_Were the soothsayers perfect examples of the four natural elements?_


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